ancient city on the east coast of Sicily, 12 miles (19 km) north of Syracuse, founded about 728 BC by colonists from Megara in Attica. In 628 the city established a colony at Selinus but in 483 was destroyed by the Syracusan leader Gelon. The city had a brief independent existence in the 4th century BC, when it issued coinage, but is heard of mainly as a fortified place.

Excavations begun in 1891 revealed part of the town wall, an extensive cemetery, and a deposit of votive objects from a temple built over the ditch enclosing a Late Neolithic village of the Stentinello period. Part of the inhabited area was uncovered in post-1949 digs, throwing much light on the earliest years of the city.