Onward, ever onward but only a short journey today.
Anyone who knows me will understand my interest in quarries. Having worked for 26 years in the quarrying industry (OK, only in IT), I learned a lot about the business and the practicalities. Seeing foreign quarries always fascinates me or horrifies me in the case of many countries. Today I managed to combined two interests, quarrying and archaeology. We visited the 'Cava di Cusa' from where they quarried the stone to build Selinus.
The quarry, just outside Campobello di Mazara, is well worth a visit even if you are not interested in quarries. The last half a kilometre of the road was beautifully paved in stone and it was totally bone-shaking in the motorhome. After apologies to Henrietta we set off into the quarry, a shallow cut through a small ridge of very good quality tufa. There was evidence of extraction of stone blocks but it got really interesting further in. Sections of columns lay on the ground but there were also columns in the process of being excavated. The rock face was rounded and then a curved trench was created from the top surface eventually creating a column still attached to the bedrock at the bottom. Large levers were then inserted at the top causing the pillar to break away from the bedrock at the bottom. Unless of course there was a flaw in the stone. There was evidence in the quarry of areas that had been abandoned due to weaknesses in the stone and extracted columns were left after they had broken. The massive column sections and stone blocks had to be transported over 11 kilometres to Selinus and I am not sure how this was done but it must have been a considerable undertaking.
After another bone-shaking journey to the road, we drove on to Marsala past its port (the largest in Sicily). We had been told that by the people at Punto Braccetto that there was an aire in Marsala but they didn't know where it was. The owner at Marinella di Selinunte said that there wasn't one but I identified an open area on the seafront using the sat nav and set that as a destination. When we arrived there we found a free car park with parking places for campers and camper services (water and dumping). For those who wish to use the aire, it can be found on the Via Beo, the main seafront road, just north of Piazza Piemonte E Lombardo.
We parked up and set off on foot for the Archaeological Museum, which the guide book said closed at 13:30. When we got there it turned out that the hours had been extended to 15:00, which gave us plenty of time. The main draw was the Punic warship dating back to the 3rd century BC. Discovered by a fisherman who found old wood in his nets, the wreck was investigated by a British marine archaeologist Honor Frost who happened to be in the area. She then spent the next 13 years, recording, lifting and conserving the wreck and it is now exhibited in a special room in the museum together with many pithoi (large, long, thin pottery vessels) found around the wreck and the surrounding area. The rest of the museum was interesting but lacking in English explanations.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around the streets of Marsala, discovering Punic and Greco-Roman cemeteries and reading information boards set up by the Tourist Information Office at the city's interesting sites. We finished off with a visit to one of the Marsala wine shops. Here we were treated to a very extensive tasting session not only trying the famous sweet Marsala wine but also Marsala with almonds, Marsala with egg, dry Marsala and some lovely, fragrant desert wines made on the nearby Egadi islands. Although the Favignana desert wine was delicious, it was very expensive and we weren't sure when we would drink it, so we chose the our favourite Marsala, the dry. We have an Englishman, John Woodhouse, to thank for Marsala. He visited Marsala in 1770 and, realising that if the wine was fortified with alcohol it would travel well, started exporting it to Britain. Many other Englishmen followed him and fortunes were made in the business. There is no English involvement with the industry now, unlike the Port industry in Portugal.
Photos: Cava di Cusa – a column excavation, just started; Two columns ready to be extracted; A view in the Cava di Cusa quarry; The Punic warship.
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