Situated on an plain, about 30 meters high above the level of the sea, Selinunte derives its name from the Selinon, the wild parsley.
It was founded by a colony from the Sicilian city of Megara (Megara Hyblaea) under the conduct of a leader named Pammilos, in the VII century a.C.
Following immigrations of megarians colonists took place in the last decades of the VII century, in the VI century until the beginnings of the V. Selinunte tried to found some colonies in western Sicily (Eraclea Minoa).
It had numerous and strong contrasts with Segesta until 409, the year of its destruction by Carthaginians. Selinunte was subdued to the dominion of the Punic people who reinforced and reconstructed it, in the area where once the acropolis was situated: today the archaeological rests represent a mixed inhabited area, with Punic and Greek elements.
The Carthaginian dominion lasted up to the punic war. Chartage, to defend itself from the Roman attacks, decided to assemble its strengths in Lylibeo, transferring there the population of Selinunte, destroying the city and surrendering it to a downfall. A violent earthquake, in the century X or XI perhaps reduced the monuments of the ancient city to a heap of ruins. In the second half of the XVI century, the city was rediscovery by the historian Tommaso Fazello. In 1823 English people undertook some archaeological excavations.
Today a wide program of studies and researches concerning the archaeological park and the museographic preparation is in a phase of realization.