When you come from Trapani, shortly before arriving in Marsala, Motya is a little natural and archaeological miracle: fragments of walls, of flights of steps, of fortifications, have as their immediate background the sea and the heights on the other islands.

This is a rich and strong landscape, neither rugged nor soft, which encompasses the remains of a Punic city never again rebuilt after its life came to an end in 397 BC.

Dippings on the island of Motya have brought to light various monuments which are of great interest for knowledge of the Phoenician and Punic civilisation in the Mediterranean.
The oldest is the archaic necropolis, whwre hundreds of cremation graves come to light, with rich equipment consisting of Punic and early Corinthian crockery, weapons, jewels, scarabs and so forth.