As both part of the World Heritage List of UNESCO, the protohistorical site of Pantalica and Palazzolo Acreide represent the key to the understanding of the settlement dynamics of human beings in the Hyblaean plateau.
On our expert-led cultural tour, we will visit the most important architectural and archaeological treasures of the Hyblaean plateau of Syracuse, which is entirely framed by an enchanting natural landscape made of impressive protohistorical rocky necropolises, Greek civil and religious architecture, Paleochristian catacombs, medieval rocky churches, and Baroque buildings.
Our private day tour will start in Pantalica with a trek along paths through the rock faces of the Anapo River and Calcinara Torrent, which contain almost 4000 tombs cut into the limestone between the 13th and the 8th centuries BC. We will also go in the so-called Anaktoron, a megalithic 12th-century BC building, and different medieval rock-cut churches.
We will then head to the Archaeological Park of Akrai, a Greek polis established by Syracuse in 664/663 BC to keep control of the Hyblaean uplands. Here, you will admire one of the best preserved Greek theaters in Sicily and Southern Italy, a bouleutérion, built for the city government, the so-called Aphrodite Temple, and the great stone quarries of Intagliata and Intagliatella. Finally, we'll visit Palazzolo Acreide, one of the Unesco Baroque towns rebuilt after the terrible 1693 earthquake. Here we will go into the ruins of the Medieval castle, and the Baroque Churches of San Paolo and San Sebastiano.
