Description of the attraction
Megara Iblaya is the name of an ancient Greek colony on the eastern coast of Sicily, located near the city of Augusta, 20 km northwest of Syracuse. I must say that in Sicily there were from 3 to 5 cities with the name Iblaya, which are often confused with each other. There is no doubt only that it was a Greek colony, and the circumstances of its creation are described in detail by the historian Thucydides. He writes that immigrants from the Greek city of Megara, led by Lamis, arrived in Sicily and settled in the region of the mouth of the Pantagias River in the town of Trotilon. From there they later moved to the promontory or peninsula of Thapsos, near Syracuse, and after the death of Lamis, at the suggestion of Iblon, the ruler of Sicily, they settled in the place that is now known as Megara Ibalaya. It was in the 8th century BC.
Little is known about the first years of the colony's existence, but it probably flourished, because a hundred years after its founding, immigrants from Megara went to the other end of Sicily, where they founded the city of Selinunte, which later became much more powerful than Megara herself.
Around 483 BC Gelon, a tyrant from Gela and Syracuse, after a long siege, proclaimed himself the ruler of the capitulated Megara and sold most of its inhabitants into slavery. Among them was Epicharmus, the famous philosopher, poet and comedian. After this event, Megara was never able to revive her former glory and greatness.
Excavations in 1891 near Syracuse uncovered the northern part of the western city wall of Megara, which also served as a flood dam, a vast necropolis with 1,500 graves and a repository of items from an ancient temple.
