Thapsos archaeological site
The Archaeological Site of Thapsos, located within the Saline di Priolo reserve, on the Magnisi peninsula, is an archaeological site of considerable historical interest as it contains the remains of a city-symbol of Sicilian prehistory.
The city that arose in this site it is described by the Athenian historian Thucydides as a place where the Athenians camped in view of the siege of Syracuse and as a stopping point, at the time of the colonization of the founders of the future Megara Hyblaea, in the 8th century. BC
Excavations conducted on the Magnisi peninsula have brought to light a vast settlement which was inhabited continuously from the 15th to the 9th century BC. Initially, the inhabited area consisted of circular huts with wooden tops, distributed without an apparent criterion organizational; subsequently buildings with a rectangular plan arose, equipped with an internal courtyard and connected to each other by a road; finally large buildings with an apsidal plan appear.
Numerous finds of notable historical and artistic value have been found in the area: weapons and objects in bronze, amber of Baltic production, necklaces in vitreous paste and pendants in gold. These finds, which bear witness to the wealth of the inhabitants of Thapsos, are now exhibited in the "Paolo Orsi" Regional Archaeological Museum in Syracuse.
Beyond the town, there are numerous necropolises located along the northern coast and, in groups, in the interior of the peninsula. The tombs present in the necropolis are of the oven type, dug into the rocky surface, with frontal access via a short dromos or of the vertical well type. In some cases, the circular rooms have walls marked by niches. Most of these were family tombs and contained numerous burials, accompanied by rich grave goods, also kept in the Paolo Orsi Regional Archaeological Museum in Syracuse.
Within the area there is also a circular tower built by the British in 1806 to protect the access to Augusta bay from the south from possible attacks by the Napoleonic squadron.
