Gela

The urban layout

According to Dieter Mertens (2006), Gela is an example of early organisation of living space. Little is known about the first layout, largely because the modern city overlies the ancient one, which makes it difficult to produce a more detailed drawing of the Archaic and Classical urban plan. An east–west plateia along the crest of the hill can be identified. The agora would have been in an off-centre area on the platform, where the Piazza del Duomo stands today (Mertens, 2006: 79).

The residential area of the Archaic and Classical periods lay in the central-eastern part of the hill platform. Besides the east–west plateia, there was a series of stenopoi laid out in accordance with the orientation of temple A on the acropolis (Athena Lindia), the temple to which the main plateia led directly and which could be seen along its whole length; this suggests that the entire urban plan of the first foundation was conceived before it was carried out (Fischer-Hansen, 1996).

Between the temenos of the temple of Athena and the residential area lay a second sacred area, known as Molino di Pietro, with remains of a cult area attributed to Zeus Atabyrios. Near the residential area, close to the agora, there was also a temple dedicated to Hera, from the second half of the 7th century BC. For Tobias Fischer-Hansen (1996: 332), looking at the general plan of the Archaic city, it is notable that the platform was divided into basic units, in which the sanctuaries of Athena and Zeus were the most impressive parts; together with the Heraion, the agora and the residential area, they made up the first landscape of the ásty of Gela.

The restructuring of the acropolis – with the construction of the great Doric temple of the Athenaion (temple C), the monumentalisation of several sacred buildings and the construction of the wall circuit – coincides with the tyrannies of Hippocrates and Gelon (end of the 6th to beginning of the 5th century BC); these works were certainly undertaken to assert the autocratic power of the tyrants.
In 405 BC the city was razed by Carthaginian forces and remained virtually abandoned until its reconstruction by Timoleon between 339 and 338 BC, following a regular plan that radically transformed the topography and urbanism of the Archaic ásty (Orlandini, 1956: 165). A powerful new wall circuit was built around the whole perimeter of the hill, from the acropolis to Capo Soprano and Piano Notaro to the west – some stretches of this wall are still visible. The whole western sector, which corresponded to the Archaic and Classical necropolis, became a new residential quarter, as did the former acropolis area, which ceased to be a sacred area. The new quarter was organised on a system of orthogonal streets descending the slope of the acropolis over a system of terraces, always in accordance with Hippodamian urban principles (Orlandini, 1956: 166).

Some photographs of the area of the hill where the acropolis stood, from which the relationship between the Archaic and Classical urban area and the temenos at the eastern end can be seen.

Gela in Sicily

Gela was founded on the south coast of Sicily on a long hill parallel to the shore. The spot was strategic. Ships could land easily on the coast and the inland plain was considerably fertile. After its foundation, Gela began a rapid process of conquest of its khóra. The fertile plain was soon occupied, and penetration then began along the banks of the rivers Gelas and Maroglio (a tributary of the former) east of the hill, and of the river Salso to the west; during the 6th and 5th centuries BC the two rivers became the latitudinal limits, while also giving access to the interior of the territory (cf. Tabone, 2012: 195).

When the Greeks arrived in Sicily they found stable communities, established for centuries in large settlements such as Pantalica, near Syracuse (Graham 2006: 94). For Piero Orlandini, the plain of Gela must have been uninhabited when the city was founded in 689/88 BC. But it is possible that the region was already under the control of pre-settled Lindians (Monedero 1989: 284), through the establishment of friendly relations with the non-Greek communities living on the edges of the plain and the assimilation of those living within it. The material found at Spina Santa, Farello, Santa Lucia and Monte Lungo, and at Settefarine (10 km north of Gela), sites on the plain, suggests that the region was already occupied at the time of the foundation (Orsi 1932; Muggia 1997: 77; Orlandini 1956: 74; Veronese 2006: 362; Tabone 2013: 234-35). The evidence of prehistoric occupation on the plain is shown on one of the maps reproduced.

The images show Gela in the context of the territory the city occupied and the surrounding areas, such as Akragas, founded by Geloan colonists in 580/76 BC after a march westwards along the coast that culminated in the foundation of several other sites, such as Manfria and Licata (De Miro, 1962). This westward march took place at the same time as the process of penetration inland, the occupations of Butera (Omphake) and Monte Bubbonia (Maktorion) being the markers showing that by the mid-7th century BC the Geloans controlled the whole fertile plain (De Miro, 1962: 122-123).
Between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC the area was then occupied by Greek farmsteads, Sikel huts and several Greek sacred areas.
At the beginning of the Classical period most of the population lived scattered across the famous 'Geloan fields', which extended along the coast to Kamarina and up the valleys of the rivers Gelas and Maroglio inland. These fields were the main source of Gela's wealth, and many remains of farmsteads and rural temples have been found there (Asheri, 1970: 758; on the Gela Survey: De Angelis, 2006-2007).

Roads

Gela is an early example of the organisation of living space (Mertens, 2006), but little is known about the first urban layout of the polis – largely because the modern city overlies the ancient one, making a more detailed drawing of the Archaic and Classical urban plan impossible.
An east–west plateia has been identified along the crest of the hill (as can be seen on the maps showing the reconstruction of the urban plan; there is also a photo of the plateia). This plateia would have been crossed by several stenopoi (Mertens, 2006, p. 79).

From the acropolis one of the roads led into the interior of the khóra, passing through one of the gates in the wall, flanked by the sanctuary of Via Fiume (or ex-Railway Station), and further on passing the sanctuary of Madonna dell'Alemanna. However, we know little about the full extent of this road across the territory.
Among the most important routes of communication between the ásty and the khóra of Gela seem to have been the rivers Gelas, Maroglio, Salso and Dirillo (Veronese, 2006), as shown by the large number of sacred spaces founded along their banks with the clear aim of asserting Geloan sovereignty over this territory (Tabone, 2013: 232ff).

The hill of Gela

During the Archaic and Classical periods the acropolis of Gela lay on a rise occupying the whole eastern part of the platform of the hill on which the city was founded. On the acropolis there were at least two sacred areas: the temenos of the temple of Athena Lindia (temples A, B and C) at Molino a Vento, where there were numerous other sacred buildings, known by the numbers I to VIII; and the temenos of Zeus Atabyrios at Molino di Pietro.
The acropolis overlooked the sea and the mouth of the river Gelas, from where the sanctuary of Demeter Thesmophoros (known as the Thesmophorion of Bitalemi), on the other side of the river, could be seen. And the acropolis could also be seen from these places. It was also close to the wall circuit surrounding the whole hill, built by Hippocrates and/or Gelon at the same time as the area was monumentalised, especially with the demolition of temple B and the construction of temple C, which dates from the end of the 6th century BC.

As Piero Orlandini stated, temples A, B and C and the small buildings "belonged to a single great sanctuary of Athena Lindia, which occupied the whole eastern platform of the acropolis and was undoubtedly the oldest sanctuary of Gela, as shown by the Protocorinthian pottery found in the excavations" (Orlandini, 1968: 29-30). As can be seen from the images, the area was directly articulated with the general plan of the ásty. It is notable that the acropolis was not on a much higher level than the houses, and the organisation of the urban plan meant that the central plateia led directly to the Athenaion (temples A and B).

From the acropolis there also started one of the roads leading into the interior of the Geloan khóra, passing through a gate in the walls and another sanctuary, at Via Fiume (also known as the sanctuary of the ex-Railway Station [Scalo Ferroviario]), which dominated the landscape for those coming from the interior towards the ásty. This complex is interesting for thinking about how the different structures of the city were articulated (Tabone, 2013).

The sanctuaries of the acropolis: Athena Lindia and Zeus Atabyrios

The group of temples attributed to the temenos of Athena Lindia lay at the eastern end of the acropolis hill (Molino a Vento). In it, temples A, B and C and the buildings on the north side "belonged to a single great sanctuary of Athena Lindia, which occupied the whole eastern platform of the acropolis and was undoubtedly the oldest sanctuary of Gela, as shown by the Protocorinthian pottery found in the excavations" (Orlandini, 1968: 29-30). Archaeologically two buildings stand out: temple C, in the Doric style, dated to the 5th century BC, of which only one column of the opisthodomos survives (in the photo); and temple B, about 50 m west of the first, dated to the Archaic period, contemporary with the foundation of the city. Inside the latter the remains of a third building, known as temple A, were also found (cf. Tabone, 2012: 90-101).

The remains of temple A were discovered beneath the naos of temple B, so it may have preceded it (Veronese, 2006: 375). The building, like the first urban layout and buildings I and II, dates from the same period, the beginning of the 7th century BC (on the dating of temple A, cf. Adamesteanu, Orlandini, 1962: 359; Fischer-Hansen, 1997: 323; Tabone, 2012: 95), and it is notable that the whole was planned in an articulated way before the layout itself. We are dealing with a preconceived urban plan.

Temple B was built to replace temple A in the first half of the 6th century BC. It has a rectangular plan, with a stylobate measuring 35.22 x 17.75, which has led to the conclusion that it was a hexastyle peripteral temple (6 x 12 columns). During the excavations numerous architectural terracottas were found – used to decorate the temple – which testify to an elaborate decorative system at Gela, as is also reflected in the Geloan treasury at Olympia (Fischer-Hansen, 1997: 323).
During the first excavations in the area, undertaken by Paolo Orsi in 1907, the remains of a block construction were also identified, soon recognised as an altar (Orlandini, 1968: 21). A votive deposit was also identified on the southern slope of the temenos, with votive material of the 7th and early 6th centuries BC (covering the period of temples A and B); it contains various kinds of material, including some finds of interest for the attribution of the temple: a terracotta owl's head, the rim of a pithos with a dedicatory inscription to Athena, a clay head of Athena with a lophos, and an Attic white-ground jug (480–470 BC) showing an owl with an olive branch; as well as numerous statuettes of an enthroned female deity wearing a polos and necklaces fastened behind with large fibulae, recalling the type identified by Blinkenberg (1917) in the sanctuary of Athena at Lindos, Rhodes.
Thus in the mid-6th century BC the Athenaion received its first monumentalisation with the construction of temple B and buildings III and IV (first half of the 6th century BC) and V, VI, VII and VIII (mid-6th century BC), as well as temples 1, 2, 3 and 4. Paolo Orsi, later supported by Dinu Adamesteanu in the 1950s, proposed that the end of activity in the deposit and the destruction of the temple at the same time indicate the abandonment of the site until the construction of temple C at the beginning of the 5th century BC (Orlandini, 1968: 22; Fischer-Hansen, 1997).

Temple C lies about 50 m east of temple B and was built at the beginning of the 5th century BC in the Doric style, with a stylobate measuring 51 x 21.70 m, possibly with six columns on the front and fourteen on the sides, a hexastyle peripteros, and a roof covered with marble tiles (Orlandini, 1968: 25). The material found made it possible to establish that the only surviving column belonged to the opisthodomos of the temple.
In 405 BC, with the Carthaginian invasion, the acropolis was completely destroyed and abandoned; the destruction layer, full of ash and burnt beams, is clearly visible in the archaeological record. In 338 BC Timoleon rebuilt the city, but the eastern part of the hill platform became a residential area (Orlandini, 1956).

Location of the sanctuaries

There is a group of sacred areas founded at the time of the foundation of the city: the sanctuary of Athena Lindia and that of Zeus Atabyrios on the acropolis, that of Hera in the centre of the residential area, and the Heroon of Antiphemos, one of the oikistai of Gela. All were founded in the first half of the 7th century BC. And another group of sacred areas was founded from the second half of the same century, mostly outside what would become the wall circuit (the walls did not yet exist at that time) and dedicated to the chthonic goddesses, notably Demeter and Kore: Carrubazza, Via Fiume, Madonna dell'Alemanna, Bitalemi, Predio Sola and Piano Camera (cf. Danilo A. Tabone's Master's dissertation, 2012).

The maps show the distribution of the sanctuaries on the acropolis (Athena and Zeus), in the urban area (Hera and the Heroon of Antiphemos) and in the suburban area (Carrubazza, Via Fiume, Predio Sola and Piano Camera).

Group of buildings on the acropolis

Excavations carried out in the 1950s and 1970s along the northern slope of the acropolis hill (corresponding to the second terrace), north of temples B and C, revealed, besides the residential area of Timoleon's time (Hellenistic period), the foundation walls of four rectangular temples with similar plans, oriented east–west and all dated to the 5th century BC (known as Group 1). The 1970s excavations also revealed traces of other buildings (Group 2) of the 7th and early 6th centuries BC, aligned along the northern edge of the first terrace and designated buildings I and II (Fiorentini, 1977, p. 105; Veronese, 2006, p. 374). In the course of the 6th century BC buildings III and IV were added. Shortly afterwards, in the mid-6th century BC, buildings V, VI, VII and VIII (Fiorentini, 1977).

Buildings I and II (Group 2) are contemporary with the first monumentalisation of the acropolis, temple A, and with part of the votive deposit (Fischer-Hansen, 1997, p. 323). Buildings III and IV, and shortly afterwards buildings V–VIII, are contemporary with temple B and were in use until the end of the 6th century BC, when the whole complex was abandoned, until the construction of temple C and of the Group 1 buildings at the beginning of the 5th century BC. It is accepted that this group of buildings may have had cult functions or even formed part of the administration of the sanctuary (Tabone, 2012: 94).

Houses in the khóra

Most of the inhabitants of a polis lived in the urban area, the ásty, where the public buildings, temples, agora and craftsmen's workshops were. The inhabitants of the ásty were also the great landowners of the khóra (Hirata, 2009), where they might spend part of the year, especially periods when the land required more work (cf. Muggia, 1997).

The first area conquered by Gela was the fertile plain around the coastal hill; "the fertility of this region and the early date of its occupation show the strong agricultural character of the Rhodian-Cretan apoikia" (Tabone, 2012: 235). Thus between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC the region was occupied by Greek farmsteads, such as those found at Manfria, Fiume di Mallo, Priorito, Milingiana and S. Giulio (plans in the images), which were small domestic units of 338–1,584 m² made up of adjoining square rooms and associated with productive installations, such as the workshop at Manfria (Muggia, 1997: 79; Tabone, 2012: 235).

The sacred areas of the khóra
From its foundation in 689/8 BC Gela began to occupy the territory (the khóra) around the urban area (the ásty). In the 6th century BC this occupation reached its peak, extending along the valleys of the rivers Salso, Gelas-Maroglio and Dirillo and through the mountainous region north of the plain of Gela, when the Geloans came into contact both with the natives and with other Greeks settled in the border regions (cf. Veronese, 2006; Tabone, 2012).

San Mauro
Monte San Mauro lay a few kilometres south of Caltagirone and was the site of an indigenous village over which a Greek centre developed from the end of the 7th century BC. The mountain is a complex made up of a cluster of 5 hills. "Hill 1-2" is a narrow plateau of 100 x 50 m on which there was a small temple with wooden columns, a stone stylobate and terracotta architectural decoration (antefixes, kalypteres with palmettes). On "hill 3", known as the "acropolis", there was a larger temple – initially considered an anaktoron of the 8th century BC, but today interpreted as an Archaic temple of the second half of the 6th century BC. There was also a Greek residential area with streets on an orthogonal system and an entirely Greek necropolis dated to the 7th century BC (cf. Tabone, 2012: 168-169).

Piano Camera.
The area was part of a large residential complex that housed the peasants farming the plain of Gela. The technical imperfections in the temple's revetment, as well as the locally produced pottery, point to local workshops – since it lay in an area far from the ásty (Panvini, Caminneci 1993-1994: 830 apud Veronese, 2006: 408; Tabone, 2012: 143).

Monte Bubbonia
At Monte Bubbonia there was also a sanctuary: in an area of relief formed by three platforms, the highest of which reaches 595 m, where the acropolis lies – with the building that constitutes the sacred area (Veronese, 2006: 417). The spot was strategic for controlling the routes of communication – the rivers Gelas, Maroglio and Salso and the Mediterranean coast: from the top of the acropolis one could see the ásty of Gela and much of the coastline as far as Kamarina, an apoikia founded by the Syracusans east of Gela; looking north one saw Monte Navone and Piazza Armerina; to the east Caltagirone; and Butera to the west, all important indigenous centres. At Monte Bubbonia there was also a non-Hellenic centre that had been in contact with the Rhodian-Cretans of Gela since the end of the 7th or the beginning of the 6th century BC, identified with Maktorion, mentioned by Herodotus as being near Gela (Hdt. VII, 153), or else with Omphake (Pancucci 1980-81 apud Fischer-Hansen, 2002: 136). The presence of non-Greek pottery together with animal remains and ash indicates that the Greek sanctuary succeeded a Sikel place of worship, "good evidence of the continuity of the original native cult into the later Greek history of the site" (Fischer-Hansen, 2002: 136). In the second half of the 6th century BC the acropolis was fortified with a 5 km stone wall, a technique considered native but used by the Greek settlers, as can be seen in other contexts; it received a temple (a naiskos) decorated with gorgon antefixes (kalypter hegemon) of Geloan type (cf. Tabone, 2012: 162-163; Tabone, 2013). In the mid-4th century BC the sanctuary was abandoned at the same time as the settlement.

Sabucina
Sabucina was occupied during part of prehistory and protohistory by a 'Sikel' and later Greek fortress on the southern slope of the mountain (Orlandini, 1976). The first contacts with the Greeks of Gela appear from the 7th century BC. But it was from the mid-6th century BC that Gela altered the landscape of the indigenous centre with the construction of a Greek-style residential area and its fortification with a phroúrion (Panvini, 2009: 93-95). In the second half of the 5th century BC the area was rebuilt after the destruction of the centre in the middle of that century, but this time without a new sacred area, the settlement becoming a centre with evident defensive concerns.

Feudo Nobile
At Feudo Nobile, east of the ásty of Gela, there was a small rural sanctuary. It lay on the right bank of the river Dirillo (the ancient Achates) on the slope descending from Punta Vito (above the great river valley), about 50 m above the local springs and not far from a group of Sikel huts. This region lies exactly on the boundary between the territories of Gela and Kamarina, where the ancient road ran that linked Syracuse, Akrai and Kasmenai to the territory of the two poleis, Gela and Kamarina (Veronese, 2006: 406), which suggests a relationship between the sanctuary and the great dispute between the two. The variety of clays found in the material from the votive deposits shows the variety of Greek groups that converged there, from various points of Gela and Kamarina (cf. Tabone, 2012: 141).

There are many ways of dealing with the material evidence recovered in archaeological work on antiquity. One of them is reconstruction. From one or two courses of stone and a few remains of columns, we can recover the structure of a temple or building, drawing its original plan and its configuration in various dimensions. We can also make models.
The images shown here show what it has been possible to do with some remains recovered from the excavations of the wall built by Timoleon around 339 BC.

Some photographs showing aspects of the present-day landscape at Gela, Sicily.

This group of pieces has been selected to give an idea of some types of objects from this city. Note the distinctive remains of the architectural decoration of the Geloan temples, generally made of terracotta. The use of gorgons and sileni, placed on the pediments or elsewhere on sacred buildings, is striking.
There is a profusion of female statuettes used as ex-votos, altars with reliefs depicting deities or mythical scenes, and other cult objects, as well as objects of everyday use, such as pottery.

Walls and Gates

Gela received a wall circuit only at the end of the Archaic period, between the end of the 6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC, at the same time as the whole acropolis was restructured and the temple of Athena monumentalised. It was probably the work of one of the tyrants, Hippocrates or Gelon, and was certainly intended to assert his autocratic power.

In 405 BC Gela was razed by Carthaginian forces and remained abandoned until its reconstruction between 339 and 338 BC by Timoleon, when a powerful new wall circuit was built around the whole perimeter of the hill, from the acropolis to Capo Soprano and Piano Notaro to the west. Some stretches of this wall are still visible today, as can be seen in the photos.

The walls did not close off the city completely. They had gates which often served to define the functions of specific areas of the city by linking them to structures such as harbours or to the interior of the territory. This is the case at Gela, where one of the central stenopoi of the urban grid led to a gate on the north, continuing as a road to the cultivable area.

Architectural detail.
The architectural details shown here help us understand how the Greeks constructed their buildings. Although houses might have only the base of their walls made of stone, public buildings, religious or civic, were generally built of carved stone and sometimes had details added – such as metopes and other architectural sculptures – in clay.
In these images we can see how columns were assembled from drums and then fluted, and how capitals were decorated. There is also an example of how buildings were decorated by applying paint to create geometric patterns or to colour images.

In her research, the Italian archaeologist Francesca Veronese (2006) sought to understand the process by which the Sicilian poleis took possession of their territory during the Archaic period, observing the relationship between religion (and the foundation of sacred areas), the topographical reality and the politico-religious dimension they assumed. For Veronese the sacred is central to the analysis; she regards it as the main instrument of ideological communication and political control, essential in the formation of identities in the Greek world.
For this analysis, Veronese draws on the concepts of 'sacred landscape' and 'political landscape', using archaeological models for investigating territory: Central Place Theory, Thiessen Polygons and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) – the graphs shown are the result of these studies. This theoretical framework is used to analyse both urban and hinterland sanctuaries in order to test the hypothesis that the projection of the sacred over the territory of the poleis responds to sociopolitical criteria (Veronese, 2006: 26). The graphs and tables obtained make it possible to perceive and assess Gela's area of influence, as well as the relations between the polis and neighbouring groups, both indigenous (as at Monte Bubbonia) and other Greeks (as at Monte San Mauro, a border disputed with Akragas).

Necropoleis in the ásty

In general the necropolis – the "space of the dead" – lay away from the residential area and outside the wall circuit of the urban area. These areas are archaeological sites with great potential as evidence of funerary customs, but they also allow inferences about various aspects of the life of a community (Hirata, 2009).

The Archaic and Classical necropolis of Gela lay in the western part of the hill. During the Hellenistic period this necropolis was incorporated within the wall circuit and became a residential area, while the new necropolis was located in an area even further west (cf. Orlandini, 1962; Mertens, 2006).

Necropoleis in the khóra

There are several necropoleis scattered across the khóra of Gela, such as that of Spina Santa, on the plain, excavated by Paolo Orsi, where the Italian archaeologist noted Greek presence from the 7th century BC, which grew denser during the 6th and 5th centuries BC (Orsi 1932: 137-149), showing that the plain was already densely populated by Greeks together with non-Greek populations from the earliest days of the city's foundation (Monedero 1989; Muggia 1997: 77)
But several of these necropoleis lay in the context of non-Greek centres within Gela's orbit, as at Montagna di Marzo, Monte Bubbonia, Sabucina, Gibil-Gabib and Monte San Mauro (shown in the image). These necropoleis are interesting in that they contain burials of the non-Greek elite made in the Greek manner, implying that this elite adopted ritual and funerary equipment of Greek origin. They thus provide valuable material for thinking about relations between Greeks and non-Greeks within the Geloan khóra.

Residential area

Houses in the Greek poleis were modest, laid out along narrower streets, the stenopoi, which crossed the plateiai, the wider streets. In many of them, especially those founded in the West, such as Gela, the street network was orthogonal, with streets crossing at right angles (Hirata 2009).

The residential area of Archaic and Classical Gela lay in the central-eastern part of the hill platform. Besides the east–west plateia, there was a series of stenopoi laid out in accordance with the orientation of temple A on the acropolis (Athena Lindia) (Fischer-Hansen, 1996). This arrangement of the plateia and stenopoi in relation to the acropolis can be seen on the maps.

In 405 BC Gela was razed by Carthaginian forces and remained virtually abandoned until the reconstruction undertaken by Timoleon between 339 and 338 BC, following a regular plan that radically transformed the topography and urbanism of the Archaic ásty (Orlandini, 1956: 165). The whole western sector, which corresponded to the Archaic and Classical necropolis, became a new residential quarter, as did the former acropolis area, which ceased to be a sacred area – this is the area that appears in the photographs. The new quarter was organised on a system of orthogonal streets descending the slope of the acropolis over a system of terraces, always in accordance with Hippodamian urban principles (Orlandini, 1956: 166).

Suburban sacred areas

The sanctuary of Carrubazza, probably dedicated to Demeter, lay on the north-western slope of the acropolis, facing the inland plain (Veronese 2006: 385).
Via Fiume (ex-Railway Station) lay on the northern slope of the hill of Gela, outside the Archaic wall circuit, at the start of the road linking the ásty to the interior of the island, which was connected to the urban street system. The sanctuary, "dedicated to Demeter and Kore, could be seen on the left of the entrance to the ásty by all those arriving from the khóra" (Tabone, 2012: 117).

Predio Sola lay on the southern slope of the acropolis hill, on a small terrace overlooking the sea. At first it was an open-air place of worship (end of the 7th – mid-6th century BC) and later received a small temple (540/30 – beginning of the 5th century BC) dedicated to Demeter and Kore, possibly under the epithet Thesmophoros (Tabone, 2012: 120-21).

The sanctuary of Madonna dell'Alemanna lay on the edge of the plain north of Gela, on a modest rise in the ground, where a medieval church of Madonna dell'Alemanna (12th century) now stands. The sanctuary was one of the largest of Gela's 'extra-urban' sanctuaries and was dedicated to the chthonic goddesses, connected with the road leading from the acropolis hill to the fertile interior, the 'campi geloi'.

The Thesmophorion of Bitalemi
The Thesmophorion of Bitalemi (dedicated to Demeter Thesmophoros) lay east of the hill, beyond the mouth of the river Gelas, a short distance from both the sea and the city and almost opposite the Doric temple on the acropolis, on a sandy hill called Bitalemi that dominated the surrounding fields (Veronese, 2006: 398; Kron, 1992). Between the mid-6th and the beginning of the 5th century BC the area was an open-air sanctuary, possibly with the tents in which the Thesmophoria festival was held (Kron, 1992); around 550/40 BC the first buildings appeared, constituting a first monumentalisation. And in the first half of the 5th century BC the earlier buildings no longer existed, replaced by others, a stoa or lesche that was never completed (cf. Tabone, 2012: 129-133).