Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Tourism has been my passion and my profession since 1990. I began in La Plata, Argentina, at Euromar Turismo, the agency owned by my beloved father, Orazio Filippo Greco, before continuing in Italy with Andina Viaggi. Merlintravel grows from that experience and the desire to keep exploring and sharing the world. The journey continues…
Let’s see where it takes us.
Illustrated guide · Sicily
Twenty-five substantial chapters connect Phoenician Motya, Punic and Roman Lilybaeum, medieval Marsala, shipwrecks, wine, salt production and the living Stagnone.
Explore the placesWhere a family journey through Sicily reaches the island’s western threshold
Mozia and Marsala carry that personal route to the far west, where the island faces Africa and where shallow water, islands and channels made movement more important than any modern boundary between land and sea.
The guide keeps the Phoenician island, Punic-Roman city, medieval centre, Risorgimento, wine economy and protected lagoon connected but never interchangeable. A salt-pan sunset cannot replace the history of Motya; a Punic ship cannot stand for all of Lilybaeum; the name Marsala does not describe one wine style or one historical period.
The aim is a landscape read through archaeology, water, labour and exchange: an island that became a fortified city, survivors who founded a new stronghold, ships built and lost, streets layered beneath Capo Boeo, vineyards transformed by trade and salt crystallised through controlled movement of wind and water.
One destination
Mozia occupies the small island of San Pantaleo inside the Stagnone, while Marsala stands on Capo Boeo beyond the lagoon’s southern reach. The two places are historically linked but not spatially continuous: Motya was destroyed in 397 BC, and Punic Lilybaeum developed on the mainland as a new fortified city and African gateway.
Recent research has changed familiar interpretations. The rectangular basin long called the Kothon is now understood by the Sapienza mission as a sacred freshwater pool within a circular sanctuary, not simply a military harbour. Houses, temples, gates, cemeteries and workshops make Mozia a complete island city; at Marsala, the 28-hectare Capo Boeo park preserves streets, baths, domus, sanctuaries and fortifications because the medieval and modern centre retreated from the ancient shoreline.
The Stagnone is also a protected ecological and productive system. Posidonia, halophytic plants and migratory birds share space with historic salt pans, causeways, boat routes, vineyards and contemporary recreation. Conditions change with wind, weather, transport and conservation, so practical information is deliberately linked to current institutions rather than frozen into permanent promises.
The selection
The route consolidates connected structures without confusing Motya with Lilybaeum, archaeological evidence with reconstruction, or the protected lagoon with a postcard landscape.
SHALLOW WATER, ISLANDS AND CHANNELS FORMED A PRODUCTIVE MARITIME LANDSCAPE
Mozia begins inside a living lagoon whose ecology, salt economy and navigation shaped every later settlement.
The reserve covers more than 2,000 hectares and includes San Pantaleo or Mozia, Schola, Santa Maria and Isola Lunga. The long outer island separates shallow internal water from the open Mediterranean. Wind and tides drive circulation through the lagoon, while boats, salt pans and low shorelines make distances deceptive.
Protected water, landing points, salt, fish and routes toward western Sicily helped make the Stagnone attractive long before the Phoenician city. Motya used the lagoon defensively and commercially but still depended on navigable channels and mainland connections. Later silting, sea-level change and human intervention altered the coast, so the ancient water map cannot be copied directly from today’s shoreline.
A SMALL ISLAND HELD PREHISTORIC USE, EARLY LANDINGS AND A COMPLETE URBAN SYSTEM
Deep occupation sequences and the compact island plan should be read together without inventing a single foundation moment.
Paths circle and cross an island where vineyards, trees and modern estate buildings interrupt the archaeological sectors. Early levels appear beneath later temples, houses and fortifications and are normally understood through museum displays and excavation publications.
Phoenician settlement expanded from the early first millennium BC over land with earlier prehistoric occupation. Research records prehistoric activity on San Pantaleo and identifies a flourishing Phoenician harbour-city from the eighth to fourth centuries BC.
FORTIFICATION TURNED THE SHORE INTO A CONTROLLED URBAN EDGE
Several construction phases defended landings and movement, while erosion and rebuilding now make the circuit discontinuous.
Wall stretches and towers survive best in selected northern and eastern sectors. Shore erosion, vegetation and rebuilding make the circuit discontinuous. Gates at the north and south organise the clearest routes, while other entrances and waterfront structures require excavation plans.
A monumental circuit was established around the mid-sixth century BC and modified as military technology and the city’s needs changed. Regular towers, curtains and reinforced entrances defended landings but also controlled movement of people and goods. Destruction layers from 397 BC are important, yet not every collapsed block belongs to Dionysius’ assault.
THE MAINLAND CONNECTION IS ANCIENT INFRASTRUCTURE, NOT A MODERN WALKWAY
Gate, road, changing water level and lagoon safety belong to one archaeological and environmental reading.
At low water a stone alignment can be perceived between the North Gate and the Birgi coast. Depth, mud, protected habitats, boat traffic and changing conditions make it unsuitable as an improvised pedestrian route. The gate itself preserves multiple construction phases.
A causeway or road connected Motya to the mainland, allowing controlled movement across the lagoon and access to mainland zones. Its relation to gates, channels and water level changed over time. Modern submergence reflects environmental history as well as ancient engineering.
ARRIVAL, CULT AND CIVIC IDENTITY MET BESIDE THE LANDWARD APPROACH
Successive sacred buildings require plans and qualified identifications rather than a single timeless temple label.
Low walls and successive rooms stand near the North Gate. Their phases are difficult to read without plans because later rebuilding cuts across earlier structures. The conventional site name should not be mistaken for an ancient inscription.
The northern sacred area developed with the Phoenician settlement and was rebuilt as the city changed. Current Sapienza research compares its temple with the Kothon sanctuaries and interprets cultural mediation through architecture and cult. Greek Herakles and Phoenician Melqart could be related without becoming identical in every ritual context.
CREMATION BURIALS RECORD FAMILIES, EXCHANGE AND CHANGING RITUAL
The cemetery provides social evidence distinct from the nearby tophet and from later mainland burial grounds.
The excavated necropolis occupies the north-western part of the island. Many graves are small and their contents have been removed for study and conservation, so museum objects and publications are necessary to restore context.
More than 350 burials, mainly secondary cremations, are known from campaigns beginning with Joseph Whitaker and continuing with modern University of Palermo work. Recent excavation added over one hundred graves dating from the colony’s foundation to the period of fortification. Anthropological, botanical and stratigraphic study reveals varied rituals rather than one fixed Phoenician formula.
URN BURIALS, STELAE AND A SACRED ENCLOSURE DEMAND CAREFUL LANGUAGE
Archaeology, osteology and ancient texts do not support either sensational certainty or simple denial.
Urns, stelae and sanctuary structures occupy a north-western sector. Museum displays preserve carved monuments and finds whose original grouping matters. The open area should be visited as a cemetery and cult place, not staged as a scene of violence.
The tophet developed within western Phoenician religious tradition and received cremated remains, dedications and buildings through several phases. Recent work applies archaeology, physical anthropology and biomolecular methods to age, species and deposition. Ancient texts, inscriptions and osteology do not always answer the same question, so claims of universal child sacrifice or complete absence of sacrifice both exceed parts of the evidence.
FRESHWATER, TEMPLES AND A GREAT ENCLOSURE REPLACED THE OLD MILITARY-HARBOUR MODEL
Basin and surrounding sanctuaries form one cultic landscape while the traditional name Kothon remains useful only when its reinterpretation is stated.
The basin measures roughly 52.5 by 36.5 metres and occupies the centre of a broad sacred area. Foundations around the basin represent several temples and rebuilding phases, not one simultaneous pristine complex.
Early excavators compared the feature to Carthage’s cothon and identified a harbour. From the sixth century BC a monumental circular enclosure organised the springs and temples.
DEFENCE AND LANDING CONTROL CONTINUED AROUND THE SOUTHERN SHORE
Low remains connect urban access, military adaptation and a shoreline that no longer matches its ancient position.
Wall foundations and gate structures lie near the Kothon sector. Their proximity can encourage visitors to merge them into one port installation. Shore change and later damage further complicate the original water edge.
The southern and western defences protected access to the sacred district and the city. Towers, a western fortress and a small Astarte shrine were built and modified across the Phoenician period. Military architecture used the island’s edge while ritual structures claimed adjacent ground.
AMPHORAE, MOSAICS, COURTYARDS AND CULT BELONGED TO ORDINARY URBAN LIFE
Production and domestic space prevent Mozia from being reduced to gates, temples and the final siege.
Kiln remains, waste deposits, tools and concentrations of containers appear in different sectors and museum cases. The House of the Mosaics and residences near the acropolis preserve room plans, decorated floors and ritual features at low level.
Potters, builders, metalworkers and food producers supplied an urban population and maritime exchange. Elite houses used courtyards, storage, water facilities, mosaics and small sacred installations.
A GREEK-SPEAKING SCULPTURAL LANGUAGE ENTERED A PHOENICIAN CITY
The celebrated figure should remain inside its uncertain archaeological and cultural context rather than being assigned a convenient identity.
The marble figure discovered in 1979 is displayed in the Whitaker Museum. Its clinging garment, stance and missing limbs have inspired labels such as charioteer, magistrate or deity, none universally accepted. Museum lighting reveals carving that reproductions flatten.
Created in a Greek sculptural tradition around the mid-fifth century BC, the work reached or was made for a Phoenician urban context. Its find near industrial and defensive sectors after ancient displacement complicates original placement. The statue records trade, capture, commission or cultural exchange as possibilities rather than one settled biography.
DIONYSIUS I BROKE THE ISLAND CITY AFTER A COMPLEX ASSAULT
Destruction layers illuminate warfare but do not explain every collapse or end every later use of Mozia.
Burnt layers, collapsed defences, weapons and repairs are identified through excavation rather than dramatic standing ruins. Many objects were moved in antiquity or by early digs. Quiet vineyards conceal the density of the siege landscape.
Dionysius I of Syracuse attacked Motya with major siege works in 397 BC. The city’s fall reshaped Punic strategy in western Sicily and helped drive the foundation of Lilybaeum on a more defensible mainland promontory. Limited activity continued on San Pantaleo, but the island did not recover its former urban role.
COLLECTION, LANDOWNERSHIP AND RESEARCH SHAPED THE MODERN ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE
The museum and excavations must be read with the history of early collecting and present conservation together.
The Giuseppe Whitaker Museum occupies the family’s island residence and displays the Young Man, stelae, pottery, sculpture and finds from generations of excavation. Tickets include island and museum access but not ferry transport; weather can suspend crossings and the museum has its own midday closure.
Joseph Whitaker purchased and explored the island in the early twentieth century, establishing collections and a research tradition. Modern missions from Sapienza and Palermo work with the Foundation and public heritage authorities, applying stratigraphy and scientific analysis absent from pioneer campaigns. Re-reading notebooks and storerooms is as important as opening new trenches.
SURVIVORS AND PUNIC POWER BUILT A MAINLAND STRONGHOLD FACING AFRICA
Lilybaeum followed Motya historically but occupied a different geography, defensive system and maritime horizon.
Capo Boeo projects from the western edge of Marsala toward the Sicilian Channel. The archaeological park occupies about 28 hectares between the museum, shoreline and Porta Nuova. Medieval and modern settlement shifted inland, leaving a rare broad area of the ancient coastal city unbuilt.
After Motya’s destruction in 397 BC, Punic authorities and survivors established Lilybaeum as the principal stronghold of western Sicily. The site controlled open-sea traffic toward Cape Bon and could receive fleets while maintaining land connections. Its name, plan and population developed independently even as Motyan memory and people contributed to the foundation.
A GREAT LANDWARD DEFENCE RESISTED ROME FOR NINE YEARS
Fortification and siege belong together, while the Battle of the Egadi remained a separate naval conclusion to the First Punic War.
North-western fortifications preserve double wall lines and a tower within Capo Boeo. No single trench represents the entire siege.
Punic builders enclosed a large quadrilateral and used the promontory’s sea edges as part of defence. Roman forces besieged Lilybaeum from around 250 BC.
PORT, ADMINISTRATION AND AGRICULTURAL ROUTES SUSTAINED A MAJOR PROVINCIAL CITY
Cicero’s praise belongs to a functioning Mediterranean centre rather than an empty successor to Punic history.
Port finds and museum displays document traffic toward Africa. Roman streets, houses and baths spread through Capo Boeo. Later coastal change means the ancient harbour cannot be read only from the present marina.
Under Rome Lilybaeum served as naval base and departure point for Cape Bon and Carthage. Cicero was quaestor here in 76–75 BC and later called it a splendid city while prosecuting Verres for provincial abuses. It became a municipium and later a colony, maintaining a mixed Punic, Greek and Latin inheritance.
STREET LEVELS, MOSAICS AND PRIVATE BATHS REVEAL A CITY REBUILT OVER TIME
Road and house remain distinct archaeological contexts but together show how Roman Lilybaeum organised movement and elite residence.
Plateia Aelia crosses the archaeological area and connects exposed buildings. Insula I preserves a substantial domus with mosaic floors and a bath installation.
The street formed part of Lilybaeum’s regular plan and structured access to houses, baths and public zones. Imperial owners invested in reception, bathing and coloured pavements using styles closely connected to North African workshops and markets.
BATHING, WATER AND CULT SHARED A MONUMENTAL QUARTER
Excavated structures and inscriptions support a connected reading without fixing every room to one ritual function.
Public baths retain a furnace and a heated pool supported on suspensurae. Nearby sanctuary finds refer to Asclepius, Salus-Hygieia and Isis-Aphrodite, including an inscription to Isis of innumerable names. Not every sculpture remains in situ.
Roman bathing combined hygiene, sociability and civic display. The sanctuary’s divine associations show how healing, protection and maritime cosmopolitanism could be expressed through overlapping names and images. Syncretism did not erase difference; worshippers selected forms for particular needs.
TOMBS, INSCRIPTIONS AND PAINTED CHAMBERS EXTEND THE CITY BEYOND ITS WALLS
Individual monuments open onto wider funerary landscapes whose chronology and accessibility vary.
The Via del Fante area contains burials from the later third century BC to the second century AD on several levels. Other hypogea, including Crispia Salvia, preserve painted and inscribed contexts with separate access conditions. Many sites require current Park information or special opening.
Cremation was common, sometimes performed within the grave, but inhumation in pits and stone cists also occurred. Small stepped-pyramid markers used dressed calcarenite and white plaster. Family, status, age and changing belief produced variation across centuries rather than a single Punic or Roman rite.
CONSERVATION CONNECTS NAVAL TECHNOLOGY TO CENTURIES OF MARITIME LOSS
The Punic remains and medieval wrecks require separate dates and functions, joined by the museum’s work of preserving fragile hulls.
The Regional Archaeological Museum occupies Baglio Anselmi and presents the Punic ship on a close viewing walkway. The museum displays the late Roman cargo ship recovered near the former Birgi estuary, with one side reconstructed and the other shown as found, plus medieval wreck material and small wine amphorae from Marsala’s southern coast.
Honor Frost directed recovery between 1971 and 1974 after remains emerged near Punta Scario. The Marausa vessel records late Roman transport and estuarine navigation centuries after Lilybaeum’s Punic foundation.
A CHANGING CITY CENTRE REUSED THE LONG AFTERLIFE OF LILYBAEUM
Urban contraction, the debated name Marsala and the Cathedral’s many phases belong to a layered centre rather than a single Arab or Norman foundation.
The historic centre lies east of much of the archaeological park, organised by gates, narrow streets and Piazza della Repubblica. The Duomo dominates Piazza della Repubblica, also called Piazza della Loggia.
After late antiquity and Byzantine rule, Arabic-speaking administration and maritime culture reshaped the port and name traditionally explained through marsa, harbour. Tradition and documentation place the church’s beginnings in the Norman period and connect its dedication to Thomas Becket.
A CITY GATE BECAME A NATIONAL MEMORY SITE WITHOUT LOSING ITS URBAN HISTORY
The 1860 landing is one layer within a rebuilt gateway, harbour city and museum landscape.
The gate built as Porta Mare in 1685 stands in the historic centre with the crowned Spanish Habsburg eagle above its arch. The San Pietro complex houses the municipal museum, including the Risorgimento-Garibaldian section, library and archive.
Garibaldi and the Thousand landed at Marsala and entered through the sea gate on 11 May 1860. Renaming converted the monument into a national memorial, while local collections assembled uniforms, weapons, documents, images and personal relics. The episode belongs both to Italian unification and to Marsala’s port history.
FORTIFICATION, OXIDATION AND ATLANTIC COMMERCE CREATED MANY STYLES, NOT ONE SWEET WINE
Vineyards, cellars, regulations and trade should be read as a living production system whose categories remain precise.
Historic bagli and working cellars connect the city to vineyards inland. DOC Marsala includes oro, ambra and rubino categories, different sugar levels and ageing terms governed by the production specification. Individual tours require booking and do not define the whole denomination.
Wine existed in western Sicily long before the modern product. From the late eighteenth century John Woodhouse, Benjamin Ingham, Vincenzo Florio and other firms organised fortification, ageing and export for international markets. Phylloxera, economic crisis, regulation and changing taste reshaped production. The DOC protects rules established in modern law, not an unchanged ancient formula.
WIND AND LABOUR MOVE WATER THROUGH A PRODUCTIVE GEOMETRY
The salt landscape is working infrastructure as well as heritage and habitat, not an unrestricted sunset stage.
Shallow pans, embankments, sluices, salt heaps and traditional windmills line parts of the lagoon. Colours change with salinity, microorganisms, weather and production phase. Some areas are active workplaces or private property rather than unrestricted scenic platforms.
Centuries of salt production adapted the Stagnone’s sun, wind and shallow coast through engineered water circulation. Windmills powered pumping or grinding according to type. Industrial change reduced some operations, while heritage, tourism and renewed artisanal production preserved others.
POSIDONIA, BIRDS, SALT AND RECREATION COMPETE WITHIN A PROTECTED LAGOON
The guide closes by returning archaeology and tourism to the ecological system that made Mozia and Marsala possible.
Posidonia meadows, fish, molluscs, algae, salicornia, limonium and rare coastal plants support a rich wetland. Flamingos, spoonbills, stilts, avocets, egrets and waterfowl use the lagoon seasonally. Recreation is visible but subject to reserve zones, weather and habitat rules.
The reserve was established in the 1980s and forms part of the Natura 2000 network. Conservation recognises that salt production and traditional cultivation can belong to the protected landscape, while unmanaged access, pollution, dredging and disturbance threaten its ecological function. Climate and sea-level change add pressures that a picturesque image conceals.
The city through time
The chronology keeps Motya and Lilybaeum distinct, then follows Marsala through medieval transformation, global wine trade and modern protection of the lagoon.
Prehistoric communities use San Pantaleo and the Stagnone before the Phoenician island city; later building preserves and disturbs these early levels.
Phoenician settlement expands across Motya, with houses, sanctuaries, necropolis, workshops and eventually a monumental wall circuit.
North and south sacred districts, the tophet, circular Kothon sanctuary, gates and elite houses are repeatedly monumentalised.
Dionysius I of Syracuse captures and destroys Motya; Punic strategy shifts to the new mainland stronghold of Lilybaeum.
Lilybaeum withstands a long Roman siege until defeat near the Egadi ends the First Punic War and transfers western Sicily to Rome.
Roman Lilybaeum prospers as African gateway, municipium and later colony, with streets, domus, baths, sanctuaries and port traffic.
Christian, Byzantine, Islamic and Norman phases reshape the city inland; graves and worship reuse the ancient urban landscape.
Porta Mare rises under Spanish rule; wine commerce transforms Marsala, and Garibaldi’s 1860 landing turns the gate into a national symbol.
Whitaker’s excavations establish Mozia’s museum; Honor Frost recovers the Punic ship, and the Young Man of Mozia is discovered.
The Stagnone reserve, regional archaeological park and continuing university research protect and reinterpret an active cultural and ecological landscape.
Before your visit
The Whitaker ticket covers the island and museum but not ferry transport. Weather can suspend crossings, and the museum has a midday closure; verify the Foundation and boat operator the day before.
The museum, Punic ship, 28-hectare archaeological park, streets, domus, baths and shoreline cannot be responsibly compressed into a quick stop after Mozia. Check the Park’s current entrances and seasonal hours.
Hypogea, necropolis sectors, restoration areas and underwater routes have different conservation and safety conditions. Do not promise routine access or enter closed archaeology.
Follow authorised boat, birdwatching, salt-pan and watersport routes. Wind, heat, shallow water and habitat rules affect every plan; active production areas are not public shortcuts.
This guide cross-checks the Whitaker Foundation, Sapienza University and University of Palermo research, the Sicilian Region’s Lilibeo-Marsala Archaeological Park and ORBS nature-reserve portal, the Municipality of Marsala and the current Marsala DOC record. It distinguishes Motya from Lilybaeum, the submerged road from a modern walking route, the traditional Kothon label from its sacred-pool reinterpretation, tophet evidence from sensational certainty, Greek-form art from Greek ownership, destruction in 397 BC from total later absence, original ship timbers from reconstruction, Punic siege from the Battle of the Egadi, ancient Lilybaeum from the complete medieval street plan, protected wine categories from one commercial style and salt-pan scenery from unrestricted natural terrain.
The hero is an original documentary illustration, not an official photograph or archaeological reconstruction. Ferry operations, island and museum hours, archaeological entrances, restoration access, hypogeum openings, boat routes, salt-pan visits and reserve conditions can change; consult the linked institutions shortly before travelling. The Kothon reinterpretation, tophet evidence, divine identifications, statue identity, ship dimensions and historical name etymologies remain qualified where research does not permit certainty.
