1. Comenius Project Partners: -St. Willibrordus-Bakel-Netherlands -Naomh Padraig Measc-Tralee-Ireland -Collège Jean Campin-La Ferté Gaucher- France -Istituto Comprensivo”L.Bassi”-Trapani- Italy

2. EUROPE, OUR VILLAGE

3. SEGESTA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PARK

4. The temple of Segesta is an unfinished doric temple. It is located just outside the perimeter of the ancient city of Segesta about 25 kilometers from Trapani The temple was build by the Elymian people, probably around 430-420 BCE, but it was never completely finished. It is build on a hill top just outside the ancient city of Segesta with a stunning view of the surrounding area.

5. Built before 430 BC, the Doric temple is the focal point of Segesta. The temple is just over sixty meters long and twenty-six meters wide, built upon four steps, with a total of thirty- six Doric columns. There are fourteen columns on each side of the building and six columns across the front and back. The structure of the temple is intact with entablature and tympanums in place, but it was clearly never finished. The columns are unfluted, the tabs used for lifting the blocks are still present on the base, and there are no traces of a cella or a roof.

6. The temple of Segesta is by construction, style and size a standard product for the late 5th century BCE, but its unifinished state and its remarkable, almost perfect state of conservation makes it one of the most important surviving hellenistic temples in the world.

7. Towards the end of the III century BC the people of Segesta built their theater on the highest peak of Mount Barbaro, at a site behind the agora, which was already a place of worship many centuries before.

8. The theater was built in the late III century BC following the principles of-greek hellenistic, with blocks of local limestone. Differs from the typical structure of Greek theater because the auditorium (cavea) is not based directly on the rock but was specially built and is supported by retaining walls. It has two entries, slightly offset to the axis of the building and can hold about 4000 people.

9. The Cavea - The cavea in the theater is the place where they sat and still sit in the audience. The cavea of Segesta has a diameter of 63 m and is divided in two by a central corridor, the diazoma. This brings two sections: one lower and one higher.The first has 21 rows of seats divided by 6 steps in 7 small wedges of varying sizes, the kerkides.The second was given instead of seats with backs. Recent research has shown that there is also a sector of steps higher, between the two inputs, partially reused in the Muslim cemetery (the first half of the twelfth century).

10. Theatre west is bordered by a paved road that comes to a natural cave, which is a sacred spring. Used during the Bronze Age, was later incorporated in the retaining wall of the cavea. The orchestra - a semicircular shape, is where the choir moves. It has a diameter of 18.4 m. Entry is permitted through two openings, (parodoi) at the sides of the semicircle, orthogonally to the central axis. As in the theater of Syracuse, one of Segesta is equipped with underground corridors that were used for the passage of the actors.

11. Today, during the summer months, the theatre is used as a venue for Greek plays, concerts and other events.

12. SALT PANS IN TRAPANI

13. Trapani is famous for more than wine and seafood. Trapani, in particular, boasts some of Europe's oldest salt marshes, and is still home to some of the windmills once used to drain water from the basins (containing ponds). Drawing salt from water remains a slow process, similar to desalination, something talked about more and more with the serious water supply problems confronting Sicily. The evaporation procedure utilises the flat marshlands of Trapani's coast and the long, dry Sicilian summers.

14. Salt extraction was a technology known to the ancient Egyptians, and in Sicily dates at least from the time of the Greeks and Romans. It has flourished in the Trapani area unto the present day, not for a lack of "dry" salt deposits in Sicily (where there are several mines), but because many cooks prefer sea salt to that harvested from other sources. The windmills, however, were a medieval development.

15. Salt production along the coast reached its peak just after the Unification of Italy in 1860, when 31 salt pans produced over 100,000 tonnes per year, much of which was exported all over Europe, as far away as Norway and Russia. Today, although demand is much diminished, there is still a niche market amongst gastronomes who swear by the salt’s unique qualities: it is 100% natural and contains a higher concentration of potassium and magnesium that common salt but less sodium chloride. The lack of chemical treatment means that the trace elements are maintained, enhancing its flavour. It is particularly good for fish dishes and can be found in many specialist food shops.

16. Midway between Trapani and Marsala, on the banks of the lagoon is a fascinating salt museum giving visitors a complete explanation of exactly how the salt pans developed and functioned over the years.