The only monumental inscription in the Sicel language known so far came to light right here, in 1962-63, cut into a sandstone block wedged in the eastern jamb of the south gate. That single graffito — a scriptio continua scratched from right to left and still undeciphered — was enough to make Mendolito, a rural district set in a bend of the Simeto between Adrano and Centuripe, one of the most closely studied indigenous sites in Sicily.
What to see
The archaeological area covers roughly 80 hectares and preserves a Sicel town ringed by walls. The circuit, which locals still call “u murazzu,” was built in emplekton during the second half of the 6th century BC; what survives is the south gate, pinched between two deep “horseshoe” towers. On one flank of the west tower an older structure emerges, its corners in well-squared blocks, later swallowed by the rampart of large polygonal stones. The houses, square and modest in size, are dry-stone work in volcanic rock; in one spot excavators found a long rectangular building split into four rooms and roofed with terracotta tiles — a mark of Greek influence on a native world that had relied on straw and mud. The digs have yielded lava-stone capitals loosely echoing the Ionic and Doric orders, fragments of octagonal columns, and antefixes shaped as maenad heads or as lion and gorgon masks.
Visiting
Do not expect a fenced park: the site is scattered across the districts of Mendolito, Mendolitello, Polichello and Sciare Manganelli, much of it on private land not yet expropriated. The southern necropolis lay toward Sciare Manganelli, a short way from the gate; here Paolo Orsi uncovered circular tholos tombs, closed by courses of stone stepping inward into a false dome, and Pelagatti dug fifteen more. Their grave goods mixed local Licodia-style pottery, imported Greek vases, bronze objects and pseudo-Egyptian faience scarabs; beneath house floors archaeologists even found small children buried inside terracotta jars.
Our editors' tip
Before or after your walk, go down to the river: not far off, the Simeto is crossed by the Ponte dei Saraceni, first raised in Roman times as an obligatory crossing and rebuilt under the Normans. Walking over it is the plainest way to grasp why, for centuries, people came through exactly this stretch of ground.