The several buildings in Monte Sirai, although no longer with high walls, provide us with useful knowledge, together with data coming from archaeological digs, about how the walls were built in the various areas.

The houses had a well-structured stone base, usually quite high (sometimes more than one and a half metres), sometimes very intricate like in the “Casa Fantar” (figs. 1-2).

Fig. 1-2 - Monte Sirai, The casa Fantar and details of the stone bases (photo Unicity S.p.A.).

The walls were then built in stone or crude clay. Trachyte was mainly used, alongside limestone and tufa rock.

The weaving technique has been documented for the walls, i.e. Alternating vertical monolithic blocks or pillars with groups of medium and small stones. They were covered with hydraulic plaster or purified crude clay. The floors were generally made of flattened limestone on clay, sometimes with underfloor channelling (figs. 3-4).

Fig. 3-4 - Detail of the walls of the ‘Casa del lucernario di talco’ (photo Unicity S.p.A.); floor and canal in the ‘Casa di tufo’ (by courtesy of Michele Guirguis 2015)

The windows probably gave onto an internal courtyard, rather than onto the exterior.

There was also an upper floor, that could be reached by a stone staircase (fig. 5).

Fig. 5 - Casa del Lucernario di talco: ruins of the staircase in stone (photo Unicity S.p.A.)