Cave di Cusa

The Cave of Cusa is located 46 km from Marsala
is the place from which the selenuntini withdraw the material required to build their majestic temples: the Cave of Cusa.
Only there were a tuff hard enough to be worked in large blocks.
The caves were used for a very long period and probably the work involves a great number of people.
The size of blocks of tufa required the application of a particular method: the blocks were carved in the rock and processed locally. Only then proceeded to transport.
The peculiarity of the Cave of Cusa is that they were abandoned suddenly in 409 BC, due to the arrival of the Carthaginians, who were destroyed Selinunte.
So, even today, you can see the walls of caves carved by the tools of selenuntini, blocks of stone left in the works while others scattered here and there, had already been detached from the rock and were ready to be brought into town. There are also some on the road to Selinunte.
A visit to the Cave of Cusa therefore allows to reconstruct the entire cycle of extraction of the raw material used here between the sixth and fifth centuries. BC