Ancient sites are an exceptional feature of Sicily forming a direct link to the people who once inhabited the island. Some of them, located in unspoilt countryside and abandoned for centuries, remain untouched by modern developments. One of these is Akrai, located some 40 kilometres inland from Syracuse. The archaeological site lies in open country outside the baroque city of Palazzolo Acreide.
The road from Syracuse leads up to countryside that is very different from the coastal plain. Climbing slowly, the road reaches a plateau with open vistas, olive groves divided by low stone walls, rocky hillsides and deep gorges along the rivers. The air is clearer and the heat less intense than by the sea and a visit is like a trip back in time to a life lived closer to the land. This is an agricultural region, famous for raising horses and for its produce such as olive oil, cheese and meat, and which offers a robust cuisine.
As ancient Syracuse developed in size and importance it sought protection in its surrounding territory. Two outposts were established down the east coast, Helorus and Neaiton (Noto), and a third, Kamarina, on the south coast. Akrai was founded around 664 BC to protect Syracuse from the north and to provide access to the inland routes to the Greek cites on the south coast. The hinterland between these outposts became Syracusan territory providing the city with food and livestock. The name Akrai comes from akros, the Greek for edge or extremity, referring to the town’s position dominating a hilltop. Akrai developed into a small city which was at its most prosperous under Hiero II, who ruled Syracuse from 269 to 216 BC.
The site contains a well-preserved Greek theatre dating from this period, in miniature compared to that in Syracuse, with seating for around 700. The semi-circular cavea contains tiered seating cut from the rock of the hillside, divided into nine segments by eight staircases. The theatre was remodelled by the Romans when the existing paving of the orchestra was laid. Adjoining the theatre is the bouleuterion, a small council chamber for the senate which governed the city, consisting of a semi-circle of seats in three tiers. Originally it faced the agora, the marketplace, which was the centre of political and civic life.
A temple to Aphrodite, the main deity of Akrai, stood on the top of the hill overlooking the city. Only fragments of its foundations remain today. Two more temples once stood nearby. The ancient walls, which date from between the fourth and the second centuries BC, consist of huge blocks of stone. In these walls there once stood a gate to the east with the route for Syracuse and a gate to the west for Selinunte. From the western gate the route led through the centre of Sicily, via Caltagirone, reaching the south coast at Gela.
The site contains traces of several civilisations following the ancient Greeks including Roman, early Christian and Byzantine. The elaborately worked caves and catacombs, first used by the Greeks for religious cults, were extended in the early Christian period. In the fourth and fifth centuries AD this area became the most important Christian centre on the island after Syracuse. The catacombs were further developed by the Byzantines after the arrival of the Arabs, to be used as living quarters and burial sites.
The inland route, linking Akrai to the south coast, continued to be used for centuries. It was followed by the Arabs in 827 when they invaded Sicily and tried to capture Syracuse. On their way through, they sacked Akrai. On this occasion Syracuse managed to hold out, not falling to the Arabs until 878.
Numerous artefacts from the Greek, Roman and Christian eras recovered from the site can be seen in Syracuse’s archaeological museum, the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi.
