Era traversed along its entire length by the road leading from the city of Veii to the Tyrrhenian coast and the famous Veientine salt pans, whose route was retraced in the Roman period by the paved road still partially preserved.
Reaching its final layout around the middle of the 5th century BC, the sanctuary is the result of a complex history, both architectural and cultic, dating back to the first decades of the 7th century BC.
The oldest core of the archaeological area of Veii in Rome, located at the eastern edge of the plateau, was linked to the cult of the goddess Menerva, the Latin Minerva, worshiped both in her oracular aspect and as protector of the youth and their entry into the community. In honor of the goddess, remembered by votive inscriptions alongside other deities (Rath= Apollo; Aritimi= Diana; Turan= Venus), a simple cella temple was built around 540-530 BC, replacing older wall structures, with a large retaining wall of the tuff plateau constructed to regulate the top of the cliff, a square altar with bothros (sacrifice pit), a portico, and a staircase access from the road.
Numerous and precious ex-votos in ivory, bronze, as well as particular ceramics in bucchero, stand out among them including dedications from important figures such as Tolumnius, Vibenna, who came from distant cities (Vulci, Castro, Orvieto) attracted by the fame of the oracle of Menerva. Exceptional is the splendid polychrome terracotta votive offering depicting the apotheosis of Hercules, introduced among the gods of Olympus by his protector Minerva, made around 500 BC.
In the western part of the sanctuary, around 510 BC, the three-cella Tuscan-type temple was erected, decorated with the exceptional polychrome terracotta decorative apparatus which included the acroterial statues group, those of Apollo and Hercules. The temple was flanked by a large pool, fed by a special tunnel, and a vast enclosure behind it that enclosed a sacred grove.
The cult performed was that of Apollo/Rath in his prophetic oracular aspect inspired by the Delphic model, to which purification rites were connected. Associated with Apollo was Hercules, the deified hero dear to tyrants, and perhaps Jupiter/Tina, whose image we should suppose was on the pediment of the temple building.
