Halaesa

Alesa (Halaesa) Arconidea is an archeological city that stands between Tusa and Tusa Marina.

Founded in 403 BC, it is still the subject of archeological excavations.

At Halaesa, there were two marble tables found that were a kind of census of the territory in that Hellenistic period.

This extraordinary document, additionally detailing agricultural subdivisions, refers to four temples, one inside the walls, dedicated to Apollo, and two temples outside the walls dedicated to Adrano and to Giove Milichio, baths, an aquaeduct, the “Ipurra source”, the “tapanon” and the tematetis”.  In sum, this tells us about the grandiosity of this site.

Coins that were found show the head of Zeus with short hair. Splendid !  The walls ran for about 3 kilometers, with big square blocks interspersed with towers. The main road is 6 meters wide and paved with slabs of stone arranged in a checkerboard.

The separate areas were arranged on terraces, following the contours of the land. The beautiful agorà has traces of a monumental double portico. On the bottom of the portico there are 8 chapels, rooms dedicated to worship, with niches for statues and altars. Here was found a marble statue of Ceres with a Roman inscription from the 2nd century AD.

On the acropolis there are the bases of two temples.

In the lower part of the town, one sees a wall made of big blocks of ashlar stone, which is not local, perhaps it was the school written about by Cicero. Outside the wall, one finds a columbarium, typical of the Roman epoch, where there were niches to hold the cremation ashes of the deceased.