Segesta

The Unfinished Temple

Segesta: town in western Sicily, best known for its unfinished temple.

Photos

The Unfinished Temple

Segesta's claim to fame is its unfinished Doric temple, which is one of Europe's best preserved ancient monuments. At first sight, it looks like a normal temple, but the cella is missing (see the photos below, left and right), there are no metopes, and the columns are unfluted. This strongly suggests that the sanctuary has never been finished. As the architect appears to have been a Greek and the project appears to date to the years after the first Athenian intervention in Sicily (in 427-424), it may well be that the project was abandoned when Athens tried to conquer all of Sicily (415-413) and Segesta's pro-Athenian stance was no longer appreciated.

Alternatively, the sanctuary, which measures about 58x23 m, may have been intended as some sort of open court with a temple-like enclosure. A satellite photo can be found here.

Ancient-Warfare.com, the online home of Ancient Warfare magazine

The Theater

Segesta's theater is situated on a hill that is about 100 m higher than the temple; the walk to the summit of the Monte Barbaro is part of the fun. Again, the monument is almost perfectly preserved. It was probably built in first half of the third century, briefly before the outbreak of the First Punic War changed Sicily into a war zone. It has a diameter of about 63 m and may have hosted some 3000-3500 people. Like nearly all Greek theaters, it was dug into a hill, but near the stage, supporting walls were needed. A satellite photo can be found here.