GRAMMICHELE  , a

town of Sicily, in the province of Catania, 55 in . S.W. of it by rail and 31 M. direct . Pop . (1901) 15,075 . It was built in 1693, after the destruction by an earthquake of the old town of Occhiala to the north; the latter, on account of the similarity of name, is generally identified with Echetla, a frontier city between Syracusan and Carthaginian territory in the time of Hiero II., which appears to have been originally a Sicel city in which Greek civilization prevailed from the 5th century onwards . To the east of Grammichele a cave shrine of Demeter, with fine votive terra-cottas, has been discovered . See Mon . Lincei, vii . (1897), 201; Not. degli scavi (1902), 223 .