This idyllic setting is nothing like that of the temples of Agrigento, which, magnificent though they are, are located on the edge of town amidst creeping urban sprawl and illegally constructed villas. There are 14 columns on each of the long sides of the building and 6 columns across the front and back, for a total of 36 columns. Apparently, the temple was never completed. The theatre has 20 tiers of steps which served as seats, divided into 7 sections by aisles that lead to the U-shaped stage area. The diameter of the semi-circular seating area is 63 meters.
Scholars differ as to when the it was built.
Segesta was one of the few Sicilian cities founded by the Elami, one of the so-called indigenous peoples of Sicily. The Elami were apparently less numerous and their dominions less widespread than the better-known Sicani and Siculi, Sicily's other two native peoples. Entella, an abandoned city near the present-day Contessa Entellina, is also believed to have been founded by the Elami. Taking these three sites as reference points, we can speculate that the territory occupied by the Elami was relatively small, and seems to have consisted of the mountainous interior portion of the present-day Province of Trapani and extending perhaps to include small areas of the province of Palermo and a northwestern area of the province of Agrigento. Taking into account that Segesta is about 25 kilometers east of Erice, and that Entellina is about 40 kilometers east-Southeast of Segesta, the length of the Elamis' domain was about 65 kilometers, or 40 miles.