Explorer Syracuse

The Temple of Apollo is the ruin of a Doric temple of the 6th century BC on Ortygia, facing Piazza Pancali, and one of the oldest Doric temples in Sicily. It later served as a Byzantine church, a mosque and part of a Spanish barracks; today its column stumps and cella walls are seen from the railings around the site.

The Roman Amphitheatre of Syracuse lies in the Neapolis archaeological park, a short walk from the Greek Theatre. Built in the early Imperial period, it is largely carved out of the bedrock; visitors look down on the elliptical arena, the lower tiers of seats and the entrance passages. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Syracuse and Pantalica.

The Altar of Hieron is a monumental sacrificial altar built by King Hieron II of Syracuse in the 3rd century BC, in the Neapolis quarter just south-east of the Greek Theatre. Partly carved from the bedrock, it measures about 196 by 21 metres, one Doric stade in length. Only its stepped base and foundations survive, seen from the park's paths.

Ortygia is the small island that forms the historic centre of Syracuse, joined to the mainland by bridges. Its lanes hold the Temple of Apollo, the cathedral built into a Greek temple of Athena, the Fountain of Arethusa and Castello Maniace, and the island is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of Syracuse and Pantalica.

The Cathedral of Syracuse stands on Piazza Duomo in Ortygia and is built into an ancient Greek Doric temple of Athena, whose columns still show in its walls inside and out. The church was created in the 7th century, served as a mosque under Arab rule, and was given its Baroque façade by Andrea Palma in the 18th century.

The Greek Theatre of Syracuse is cut into the rock of the Temenite hill in the Neapolis archaeological park. First built in the 5th century BC and rebuilt under Hieron II in the 3rd century BC, it has a cavea of 67 rows of seats divided into nine wedges. It belongs to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Syracuse and Pantalica.

The Fountain of Arethusa is a freshwater spring on the western seafront of Ortygia, held in a walled semicircular pool below a terrace above the harbour. In Greek myth the nymph Arethusa resurfaced here after fleeing under the sea from Arcadia; papyrus grows in the pool, which is also home to fish and ducks.

Castello Maniace is a fortress at the southern tip of Ortygia, built between 1232 and 1240 for Emperor Frederick II and named after the Byzantine general George Maniakes, who took Syracuse in 1038. Visitors enter over a bridge across the former moat to see its carved portal, the vaulted interior and the ramparts above the sea.