A red cliff facing east, overlooking the gulf: here stands the ancient village of Scopello (from the Greek Skopelòs: rock) a few kilometers from the town of Castellammare del Golfo, in the province of Trapani. A seventeenth-century baglio (from the Arab bahal: courtyard), surrounded by a few houses set against a paved square, a stone drinking trough.

According to authoritative sources, tuna fishing in this territory was practiced even before the advent of the Romans and, near the current Tonnara di Scopello, the mythical city of Cetaria extended, so named for the exceptional abundance of pelagic fish from the his sea.

Today we know little, or almost nothing, of the city of Cetaria and its tonnara mysteriously disappeared. Present in the Roman period, the city of Cetaria was portrayed by Ptolemy (Greek astronomer and mathematician100-178 D.C.) in its geographical Sicily.

Some historians claim that in the modern site of Scopello the ancient settlement that has disappeared is identified. The Faraglioni di Scopello are in fact in a position of natural shelter from the winds, with the exception of the Grecale and Levante.
This natural harbor was probably a place of anchorage already in ancient times, it can be deduced from the different types of amphorae and artifacts (Greek, Punic, African and Spanish ceramics) present in the "Museo Sommerso", the Underwater Archaeological Itinerary proposed by Cetaria Diving Center.