San Pantaleo - Mozia Attractions
Connections
Proceeding from Marsala, we take the coast road northwards for 10km/6mi as far as Contrada Spagnola, turning off on to a signposted asphalt road leading towards the sea. This passes along the edge of a landscape dominated by salt-flats until it reaches the mole from where the boats make the short trip across to the island (Times: 9am-1pm; 3-6pm).
Location
Mózia, the ancient Motya, lies on the small circular island of San Pantaleo, directly off the west coast of Sicily, north of Marsala. The island is privately owned by a family who have undertaken the excavation of the ancient town, which was a fortified Carthaginian settlement.
History
The position of this island, which is a mere 600 x 700m/650 x 750ft in size, in the middle of a lagoon, protected from the open sea by the elongated island of Isola Grande, was the precondition which made it possible for a Phoenician settlement to exist here as long ago as the eighth century B.C. It was of use to the great Phoenician/Punic power, Carthage, when it had to retreat in the face of the Greek colonizing forces, and for centuries was one of its bases in western Sicily, together with Palermo and Solunto.
In 397 B.C. Motya was conquered by Dionysios I of Syracuse; in 396 it was retaken by the Carthaginians, but then voluntarily surrendered, its role being taken by the powerful maritime fortifications of Lilybaion/Lilybaeum (today, Marsala). The remainder of Motya's inhabitants then moved there. After that the settlement was no longer developed systematically, but individual houses from later periods, such as the Casa dei Mosaici, were added. Today the island, which since the Middle Ages has taken its name from Saint Pantaleo, is used for agricultural purposes, including vine-growing.
Proceeding from Marsala, we take the coast road northwards for 10km/6mi as far as Contrada Spagnola, turning off on to a signposted asphalt road leading towards the sea. This passes along the edge of a landscape dominated by salt-flats until it reaches the mole from where the boats make the short trip across to the island (Times: 9am-1pm; 3-6pm).
Location
Mózia, the ancient Motya, lies on the small circular island of San Pantaleo, directly off the west coast of Sicily, north of Marsala. The island is privately owned by a family who have undertaken the excavation of the ancient town, which was a fortified Carthaginian settlement.
History
The position of this island, which is a mere 600 x 700m/650 x 750ft in size, in the middle of a lagoon, protected from the open sea by the elongated island of Isola Grande, was the precondition which made it possible for a Phoenician settlement to exist here as long ago as the eighth century B.C. It was of use to the great Phoenician/Punic power, Carthage, when it had to retreat in the face of the Greek colonizing forces, and for centuries was one of its bases in western Sicily, together with Palermo and Solunto.
In 397 B.C. Motya was conquered by Dionysios I of Syracuse; in 396 it was retaken by the Carthaginians, but then voluntarily surrendered, its role being taken by the powerful maritime fortifications of Lilybaion/Lilybaeum (today, Marsala). The remainder of Motya's inhabitants then moved there. After that the settlement was no longer developed systematically, but individual houses from later periods, such as the Casa dei Mosaici, were added. Today the island, which since the Middle Ages has taken its name from Saint Pantaleo, is used for agricultural purposes, including vine-growing.
Excavations
Excavations in Mozia were first undertaken in 1906 by Joseph Whitaker, who had settled in Marsala, bought the island of Mozia, and built the Casa Whitaker there. Since then a picture has started to emerge of this ancient town, the only one on Sicily in which remains from the Carthaginian period are visible.
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Necropolis
On the west coast there are two necropolises with the small stone graves used for ash urns, and to the south of this, the holy area known as "Tophet" with the remains of a small temple to Baal; here first-born sons and small animals belonging to the Carthaginians were sacrificed. The area is fenced off and partly roofed over.
Salt Flats
Along the road which runs near the coast in the direction of Birgi stretch the salt flats, which with their gleaming whiteness and their windmills, continue all the way to Trapani. In spite of foreign competition this method of producing salt still has considerable commercial importance.
