Segesta - Temple

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carved and the lifting-bosses are still to be seen.

Although far beyond the boundaries of Greece itself, this building still displays one of the refinements of Greek architecture, the curvature; the stylobate is not perfectly horizontal, but in fact rises in a very gentle curve towards the center, by some 4cm/1.5in at the ends and 8cm/3ins or so at the sides.

For a long time experts though this was not actually a temple, rather an edifice open to the skies and surrounding an Elymian shrine.

This theory was based on the observation that on the internal faces of the entablatures there are no incisions to take roof beams nor is there any sign of an interior cella. However, more recent excavations by H. A. Thompson have uncovered the rock foundations of the walls of the (cella). This indicates that the building was indeed a peripteral temple of pure Greek design and also had a cella, the stone blocks of its walls having been stolen by robbers right down to the foundations.