Selinunte, the favourite place of the gods. The most westerly Greek colony of Sicily was founded, according to statements by Diodorus Siculus and by Thucydides, in 650 or 628 BC by colonists from the Doric Megara Hyblea. Settled between two rivers, the Selino and the Cottone, the city - its name deriving from the Greek term used to indicate wild parsley, that grew plentifully hereabouts, indeed the herb was portrayed on the colony's coinage - enjoyed the peak of its development in the fifth century BC, thanks above all to the presence of a double landing point, and therefore of two ports, and to the area's notable fertility. The enemy of nearby Segesta, allied first with Carthage, then with Syracuse, the city was destroyed in 409 by the Carthaginians, an operation completed by the Romans at the end of the first Punic War, the city was almost totally devastated by an earthquake probably in the Byzantine period; reduced to a simple village in the Arab period, Selinunte was rediscovered in the sixteenth century thanks to the Dominican Fazello, even though systematic excavation of the area did not begin until 1823. Its eight superb temples, five of them built on the acropolis, three on the hill facing the sea, admirable examples of the Doric style, is one of the best testimonies to western Hellenic culture. The archaeological park set up in 1993 and divided into four sections - the acropolis, the ancient city, the Malophoros sanctuary, and the eastern temples - can be visited from 09:00 to an hour before sunset. Near the ancient complex, finally, there is the interesting village of Castelvetrano, the Cusa quarries, and Marinella, a lovely fishing village and bathing resort.