Gela is part of the Province of Caltanissetta and is one of the few comuni in Italy with a population and area that exceed those of the provincial capital.

Archaeology has shown that they chose to settle on the northern slope of the Molino a Vento extending for more than 400 m towards the west up to Castelluccio.

The Gelans won and defeated the city, also taking away a statue that was said to have been made by the mythical sculptor Daedalus.

Gela flourished and the expansionist policy of the tyrants of Gela, in particular Cleander and especially Hippocrates, led to the city founding a series of satellite colonies, including Akragas (Agrigento), and also managed to subdue several cities: Kallipolis (according to some, today's Giarre), Leontini (Lentini), Naxos (Sicily) (Giardini-Naxos) and Zancle (Messina).

After defeating the Syracusan army at the Heloros river, Hippocrates besieged the city but was persuaded to retreat in exchange for possession of Camarina.

[8] When Theron of Agrigento conquered Himera and a Carthaginian army disembarked in Sicily to counter him, he asked for help from Gela and Syracuse.

Gelo and Hiero were victorious in the subsequent battle of Himera, in which the Carthaginian leader Hamilcar died.

[19] This assertion, however, seems to be refuted by a careful reading of the sources that name the Mamertines as the real destroyers of the city, five years earlier.

Under Roman rule, a small settlement, which is mentioned by Virgil, Pliny the Elder, Cicero, and Strabo, still existed.

[6] The U.S. Army Engineers built several advanced landing airfields, which were used by the Twelfth Air Force during the Italian Campaign, in the area around the city.

After the war, a large oil refinery was built in Gela's territory as a part of Eni's industrial expansion plan in South Italy.

[33] There are three main archaeological areas that can be visited today: Capo Soprano, the Acropolis and the site of Bosco Littorio.

At Capo Soprano is the best preserved example in the world of Greek military architecture[peacock prose]: the (Timolean) city walls.

The feature that makes them unique is the large squared blocks in Calcarenite 3 m high in the lower part and a thick layer of raw or sun-dried clay bricks above which were perfectly preserved.

At some points the walls externally reached a height of almost 10 m. They are considered to be one of the most important discoveries of classical archeology of the twentieth century as they are testimony of the importance that the ancient Greeks gave to defensive design and engineering as they were designed by an architect down to the smallest detail, with devices and structures intended for specific purposes such as protection from weather and towers, stairs, walkways, drains, buttresses.

The Acropolis extends between the mouth of the Gela and the Pasqualello valley and contains the ruins of houses, shops, temples and the Hippodamian road system (with the plateia and the stenopoi).

Of the largest, temple C or Athenaion, a Doric-style column (almost 8 m high) remains standing and is one of the city's symbols.

In the Bosco Littorio, south of the Acropolis, the extensive emporium (7th–6th century BC) complex near the port at mouth of the river has been recently brought to light and restored.

Some weeks later, a short distance away, a ceramic water jug containing the bones of a newborn baby and parts of a large animal's skeleton was discovered.