PARCO ARCHEOLOGICO DI KAMARINA E CAVA D’ISPICA

The Park

The archaeological park of Kamarina, derives from the town of the same name, whose name according to Strabo means 'inhabited after much toil'. Kamarina was founded at the beginning of the 6th century BC. (598 BC - 597 BC) by the ancient Dorian Greeks from Syracuse at the mouth of the river Ippari in southern Sicily. All that remains of it today are ruins and important archaeological finds, mostly present on the Cammarana hill in the territory of the municipality of Ragusa.

The Camarina Regional Museum is housed in a rural building built at the end of the 19th century on the top of the hill around the Temple of Athena. The Museum exhibits a rich collection of commercial amphorae from the Archaic period, fauna and prehistoric finds from the area, reconstructions of some of the tombs of the Necropolis archaic, trousseau vessels.

The last pavilion of the museum is also accessible through an enclosed space,public area of the city (The Agòra of the 5th century BC. C.) with the reconstruction of a Greek-Italic amphora deposit. In the courtyard of the Kamarina archaeological park, it is possible to visit the remains of the Temple of Athena. A large cell with a pronaos without peristasis from the 5th century BC. C. Of this building, a section of the south wall of the cella and the foundations of the NW part (adyton). Leaving the courtyard it is possible to visit the site of the agora.

The section from the temple to the agora is very scenic. In this stretch theancient road from the Classical period (5th century B.C.) was then partly occupied by Roman quarters (after 258 B.C.) which altered its course. Along the ancient road are visible the foundations, the walls and the flors of the houses.

Cava d’Ispica

Cava d'Ispica is a deep valley incision of thehyblean plateauabout 13 km long, between Modica and Ispica. In the eighteenth century it was the Grand Tour for the presence of extensive medieval rock settlements and lush vegetation.

Even today, in the enchanting scenery of Cava d'Ispica, it is still possible to visit some cave villages (Le Grotte Cadute) as well as the rock churches (S. Maria, S. Nicola, Spezieria) and the rock necropolis dating back to the 16th century. Byzantine period (Catacombs of Larderia).

There is no shortage of important older monuments carved into the rock (a gymnasium from the Hellenistic period, a monumental tomb from prehistoric times).
At the exit of the Cava Ispica there is also the spur of the Force, a natural stronghold inhabited mostly in the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, in the protohistoric period and up to the time of Greek colonisation.