Page 443 - The Rough Guide of Sicily

relief from temple-touring, the olive, almond and citrus groves overlooked by honey-

toned calcareous cliff walls draped with cactus and pitted with caves. It also holds
banana, pistachio and pomegranate trees, all meticulously labelled and explained, and
a reedy stream.

Museo Regionale Archeologico

Tues–Sat 9am–1pm & 2–7pm, Mon & Sun 9am–1pm • €8, audioguide €5 • 0922 401 565

The road between town and the temples runs past the excellent Museo Regionale
Archeologico. It holds an extraordinarily varied collection, devoted to finds from the
temples, the ancient city and the surrounding area. There are brief notes in English
throughout, and an informative audioguide.

Rooms 1–6

Unusually for an archeological museum, much of what’s here holds artistic merit as
well as historical interest. You could skip most of the initial local prehistoric and
Bronze Age finds, though in room 1 look out for the gold signet rings, engraved with

animals. Rooms 3 and 4 feature an outstanding vase collection, beguiling sixth- to
third-century BC pieces, one of which depicts the burial of a warrior. The highlight is
a stunningly detailed white-ground krater from 440 BC portraying a valiant Perseus
freeing Andromeda. But it’s the finds from the temples themselves that make this
collection come alive: leaving room 4, you’ll pass a series of sculpted lion’s-head
waterspouts, a common device for draining the water from the roofs of the city’s

temples, while room 6 is given over to exhibits relating to the Tempio di Giove, with
three enormous stone heads from the temples sitting in the recessed wall. Some useful
wooden model reconstructions help to make sense of the disjointed wreckage on the
ground, although the prime exhibit is a reassembled telamon stacked against one wall:
all the weather damage can’t hide the strength implicit in this huge sculpture.

Rooms 10–15

The finest statue in the museum is in room 10, where the Ephebus, a naked Greek
youth, displays a nerveless strength and power that suggests that the model was
probably a soldier. Rooms beyond hold coins, inscriptions and finds from local

necropolises; typical is an alabaster child’s sarcophagus in room 11 showing poignant
scenes from his life, which was cut short by illness. The last couple of rooms contain
finds from the rest of the province, one of which, in room 15, is the equal of anything
that’s gone before, amply demonstrating the famed Geloan skill as masters of vase-
ware: a fifth-century BC krater displays a graphic scene from Homer in which

Achilles slays the queen of the Amazons at the moment when he falls in love with her.

San Nicola and the Hellenistic-Roman quarter