Scirocco, Segesta and Erice

Greek temple at Segesta

The winds blew off the Sahara today, filling the air with heat and the skies with fine particles of sand.  Sicilians call these winds scirocco.  They usually blow for several days, then calm down before rains from Northern Europe descend on Sicily.  But not this year.  This year the winds have heated the island a month early and dimmed the beautiful views with haze.  Given the heat (not that hot--maybe 80 degrees), we were happy to have the winds to cool us off.

Roman amphitheater at Segesta, originally twice this high

We spent the morning at the Phoenician/Greek/Roman/Berber/Norman city of Segesta.  The earliest settlers here were the Phoenicians, several thousand years BC.  Refugees from Troy, called Elimi, came later, fleeing the Athenians after losing wars to them.  Next came Romans in the last centuries BC, followed in the 8th century AD by Berbers from North Africa, bringing Islamic religion and culture.  The Berber (Moorish) conquest continues to be a very important influence in Sicilian culture, just as it is in the Iberian Peninsula.

Segesta hosted a Roman city and, much later, in the 11th century, a Norman fortress.  Today it is abandoned, but has the only standing Greek classic temple in Sicily.  The others have been toppled by the many earthquakes that shake this island.  Segesta has stood through these ruptures because of its construction, with lead "rebar" attaching each stone in each pillar to the next stone. 

temple and wildflowers

A "classic" Greek temple is one that is architecturally perfect.  Each column meets the 1:7 diameter of the column base to the height of the temple within a millimeter.  Each column is perfectly spaced from the columns on either side, again to the millimeter.  The tops of each column are exactly the right angle to the base--smaller than the base by a perfect measurement.  The Segesta temple is, therefore, a classic Doric temple, 2500 years old.  And, rising among wildflowers and mountains, it is a spectacular sight.

Segesta also has the only remaining ruins of a mosque from the era of the Muslim conquest.  All the others were converted into churches.  Because the Normans built a separate church and later abandoned the site, the mosque foundation is still evident, with its mihrab facing Mecca.

Norman church at Erice

When the Normans occupied an area, they first built a fortress and a church.  Later a town might grow around the fortress, but the Normans were foremost conquerors, whereas earlier invasions brought farmers who worked the rocky soil of Sicily.  Today, those rocky soils produce exceptional vegetables and wines.

Erice's Norman castle

Erice was a Norman town built atop a rocky promontory overlooking the Mediterranean and the rolling plain below.  We took a winding road to the top, parked outside the town and walked up the cobblestone streets to the massive castle at the top of the mountain.  Along the way are numerous craft and souvenir shops, wine bars, and pasta restaurants.  Erice is charming, cool because it is more than 4000 feet high and historically very interesting.