Overview
A half-hour drive from Cefalù in the direction of Termini Imerese, we meet the archaeological area of Himera, the westernmost of the Greek colonies on the northern coast of Sicily. The three founders were Euclid, Simo and Sacone. The polis underwent rapid building and demographic development, documented by the large-scale urban layouts built from the first half of the 6th century BC. It was home to illustrious citizens and was also mentioned by Cicero in his Verrine Orations. After years of prosperity and relative peace, Himera was attacked by the Carthaginians in 480 BC and then definitively destroyed by Hannibal. The archaeological area still contains the ruins of the urban fabric, with a sacred area characterised by archaic sanctuaries, a necropolis along the exit routes and the remains of a Doric temple likely built to celebrate the victory over the Carthaginians. An Antiquarium exhibits what was found during the excavations, with a more recent section that includes some of the objects unearthed between 2008 and 2011.
