| The Cusa Quarries - Campobello di Mazara
The place from where the inhabitants of Selinunte mined the material necessary for the construction of their wonderful temples is 11 kilometers far from the city: the Cusa Quarries. There they found the tuff quite hard to be worked in large block. The quarries were used for a long period and probably there was a lot of work for many people. The big size of the blocks needed a very particular way of working: the blocks were mined directly from the rock and carved there. Later on they were moved. The particularity of the Quarries of Cusa is that they were abandoned suddenly in 409 BC because the arrival of the Carthaginians that destroyed Selinunte. Thus, today you can still see the walls of the quarry carved by the tools of the inhabitants of Selinunte. Some blocks are unfinished while others are left around, ready to be transported. You can also find a few blocks on the street that goes towards Selinunte. A visit to the Quarries of Cusa will allow you to see and know the whole cycle of the quarring of the material used there between the sixth century and the V century BC to build those magnificent temples.
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