Yesterday dawned bright and sunny, and well it should be: We are in Sicily! Trapani, on the northwest corner, to be exact. Frank stayed on board this morning; I eagerly headed off for Selineute. Yes, I was last here 45 years ago, and yes, Selineute is a remarkable place. First, after the Carthaginians destroyed the Magna Graecia city, the site really remained undisturbed for 2500 years, so there’s very little rebuilding on top of building here. And second, the city was destroyed in a single campaign, when the city was at the top of its powers, so the inevitable temples left unfinished, et cetera, have taught archaeologists an awful lot about building techniques. And third, the site is still mostly sheep grazing and olive trees, so a huge area has been set aside for the park, and one can look around and not see anything that presumably wasn’t there in the first century. Almost.
That afternoon, Frank and I took a short walk around Trapani’s port area, and stopped for hot chocolate. Then it was back to the ship, and off for Sardinia.
The port city/capital of Sardinia is Cagliari, and my tour destination was Barumini, where the prehistoric (17 centuries BCE) Nuraghi peoples built remarkable monuments from basalt. Houses, temples, tombs have been identified; because the circular towers look (slightly) like medieval fortifications, our (extremely unknowledgeable) guide was convinced the building was a fortress. I don’t think so.
Fascinating, however, that such an involved complex, which shows remarkable engineering skills and civic organization, was built by people none of us have ever heard of … despite the guide, I enjoyed the outing very much.
Next stop: Africa!
Posted by martyhelman 
martyhelman 