Akrai Archaeological Area
Seventy years after the foundation of Syracuse, the Syracuse Corinthians founded Akrai (664-663 BC). Situated on a high hill with unbreakable rock walls, the small polis becomes the starting point of Syracusan expansion in the Sicilian territory. Due to its strategic location Akrai also becomes the sentry of the southern borders of the Syracuse area. The town reaches its maximum splendor during the years of the geroneo domination, It develops continuously, up to destruction by the Arabs in 827 A.D.
In the sixteenth century historians, archaeologists, scholars are able to locate the town. The first was the historian Tommaso Fazello who, thanks to the presence of visible remains, is able to identify the exact position of the ancient Greek colony, near the Contrada called “Palazzo Serra” or “Palazzu”.
The current archaeological area, in addition to the site of the ancient polis, includes two vast necropolis, that of “Pinita” and that of “Colle Orbo”, the latomia called “Ferali Temples” and the famous “Santoni”. The so-called “Santoni” are twelve large paintings sculpted in the rock. A collection of high-relief figures, unique in the world, devoted to the cult of Magna Mater.
Each representation shows the Goddess Cybele sitting on the throne with chitone, a long dress, and himation, a cloak coming down from a shoulder, revolves around the basin beyond the knees, on the head the “modio” and the hair that falls twisted on the shoulders and on the chest, the right hand holds a patera and the other hand a tympanum, a kind of drum.
On either side of the throne or the scene, one or two lions are always represented, sacred animals to the Goddess; the little characters represented alongside the goddess Cybele, now up, now below, are minor gods or priests of the Goddess. In the largest sculpture of the complex, Cybele is represented in standing and full-length position: on the one hand there is Hermes with caduceus and on the other side Marsyas and an unidentified female figure; close the scene, from both sides, two knights, the Dioscuri.