Page 354 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

get off at the hospital at the top of Corso Gelone, from where it’s a 10min walk along Viale Augusto and Viale
Paradiso to the site entrance

Siracusa’s Parco Archeologico encompasses the classical city district that was
Neapolis. This contained most of the ancient city’s social and religious amenities –
theatres, altars and sanctuaries – and was thus never inhabited, though these days it’s

in danger of disappearing under the sheer weight of visitors. The ticket office is
hidden beyond a street market of souvenir stalls and ice cream stands, catering to the
busloads of tourists that arrive every few minutes in the summer.

Anfiteatro Romano

As you enter the Parco Archeologico, a path to the left leads down to the Anfiteatro
Romano, a large elliptical arena built in the third century AD to satisfy the growing
lust for circus games. The rectangular tank in the centre of the arena is too small to

have been used for aquatic displays, and is more likely to have been for draining the
blood and gore spilled in the course of the combats. But not before the spectators had
had their fill: at the end of the contests the infirm, ill and disabled would attempt to
suck warm blood from the bodies and take the livers from the animals, in the belief
that this would speed their recovery.

Ara di Ierone II

No public access
On the main path into the Parco Archeologico, past the turnoff to the Anfiteatro
Romano, the ruined base of the Ara di Ierone II is a 200m-long altar erected by

Hieron II in the second half of the third century BC. It commemorated the
achievements of Timoleon, who liberated the city from tyranny and decline, and was
the biggest construction of its kind in all Magna Graecia. It was also the venue for
some serious sacrificing: Diodorus records that 450 bulls were led up the ramps at
either end of the altar to be slaughtered in the annual feast.