The Palermo conurbation is located at the foot of Monte Pellegrino, in the Conca d’Oro, and also overlooks the homonymous Gulf of the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the exact center of the Mediterranean. The average altitude is 14 meters above sea level, while the highest areas are those in correspondence with Monte Cuccio, which reaches 1,050 meters above sea level. The origins of the town are very ancient and are evidenced by the discovery of some rock engravings referable to the Paleolithic age. In the eighth century BC, the Phoenicians conquered Palermo and transformed it into one of the most powerful cities in the Mediterranean. The next century the Greeks arrived, who managed to conquer all of Sicily and part of southern Italy and who kept Palermo as the main port for trade with the Mediterranean countries. During the Punic Wars, from 264 to 241 BC, Palermo was at the center of the clashes between Rome and Carthage and, when it was called to take sides, it negotiated for the first. From that moment Palermo experienced a long and happy period of peace and prosperity that continued even with the arrival of the Goths and Arabs. The period of Arab domination, however, corresponds to the period of greatest rise and power of Palermo, which at that time was the most powerful city in all of Sicily. Then followed the Norman and Swabian dominations, which did nothing but increase the well-being acquired by the city. Subsequently Palermo became part of the domains of the Kingdom of Sicily, which with the annexation of the Kingdom of Naples became the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. It was only with the advance of Garibaldi’s army of the Thousand that Palermo and all of Sicily became part of the nascent Kingdom of Italy.