Archaeological Area of Monte Adranone – Sambuca di Sicilia (AG)
In the southwestern hinterland of Sicily, at the edge of Belice Valley and on the slopes of Monte Genuardo, there is the village of Sambuca. The name originally was Zabut, the Arabic name of the castle, derived from its founder, the emir Al-Zabut – The Splendid – name that is then transmitted to the conquered lands. Other hypotheses on the name refer to the Greek musical instrument, the sambuca, similar to a small harp, which would remind the city’s urban center, or still might result from elderberry plants spread in the adjacent valleys.
The country’s urban development follows two directions: the Arabian one “inside the walls”, projecting up to the Sixteenth Century with the construction of residences around the Zabut fortress, and that six-eighteenth-century one “outside the walls”, with the municipal building serves as a hinge.
At 7 km north of the village of Sambuca there is the archaeological site of Mount Adranone, the ancient Adranon that was colonized by Selinunte in the 6th century BC and conquered by Carthage in the 4th century BC. Today preserves the various areas of an ancient city: the necropolis in which stands out the so-called “Tomb of the Queen”; the farm used as a craft area,
the town, where you can admire the remains of houses, sacred areas, warehouses, shops, tanks and, on top of the mountain, the Acropolis.