

Temple 'E' is the best preserved of the temples of Selinus, although some of it was reconstructed using original material in 1959 by the Italian archaeologist Jole Bovio Marconi. It is characterised by multiple staircases creating a system of successive levels: ten steps lead to the entrance on the eastern side, after the pronaos in antis another six steps lead into the naos and finally another six steps lead into the adyton at the rear of the naos. Behind the adyton, separated from it by a wall, was the opisthodomos in antis. There are many of the optical illusions typical of the Doric order: the strong tapering of the columns at their ends (entasis), contraction at the corners, and widening of the final metopes.