The Peloponnese, from Mycenae to Cape Tainaron

Around the Peloponnese

You enter the Peloponnese by crossing the Corinth Canal, an hour from Athens. From the bridge, you see a dead-straight cut 6.3 kilometres long, with sheer rock walls, finished in 1893. After that, the road goes all the way round the peninsula: ancient sites, Venetian fortresses, beaches and mountain villages.

Inland, Arcadia is a land of fir forests and gorges. Dimitsana is built in terraces above the Lousios Gorge, where monasteries cling to the cliff. Here you cannot see the sea, and the roads are full of bends.

To the south, the Mani road runs along the coast between the Taygetus and the sea, from one village of grey stone tower houses to the next. It leads to Cape Tainaron, the southern tip of mainland Greece. Further east, Monemvasia is a town on a rock, joined to the coast by a causeway. You enter it on foot, through the great west gate.

In 1876, Heinrich Schliemann excavated the royal graves and found a gold mask, which he attributed to King Agamemnon. The mask is in fact several centuries older; it is on display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The Treasury of Atreus was never a treasury: it is a great domed tomb.

Near Pylos, the Palace of Nestor was discovered in 1939. Around 1180 BC, a fire baked the clay tablets of its archives. These texts in Linear B showed that the Mycenaeans already spoke a form of Greek.

Olympia and Epidaurus, two great sanctuaries

Olympia was a sanctuary of Zeus. According to tradition, the first games were held there in 776 BC, then every four years for more than a thousand years. The athletes’ vaulted passage still leads to the stadium. The Temple of Zeus housed Phidias’s statue of the god, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Before each edition of the Games, the Olympic flame is still lit in front of the Temple of Hera.

Epidaurus was the sanctuary of Asclepius, the god of medicine. Its theatre, from the late 4th century BC, seats about 14,000. Its acoustics are famous: a coin dropped in the centre can be heard, they say, right up in the top row. Since 1955, the Epidaurus Festival has staged ancient plays there on summer evenings.

What not to miss

1. 1MystrasA Frankish castle from 1249 and, below it, a Byzantine town, on a slope of the Taygetus, with its frescoed churches.
2. 2MonemvasiaA car-free lower town and, at the top of the rock, the ruins of the upper town.
3. 3The Diros CavesAbout 1.2 kilometres by boat through a flooded cave, among the stalactites.
4. 4Cape TainaronIn legend, an entrance to the Underworld; a path of about 2 kilometres leads to the lighthouse.
5. 5PalamidiThe Venetian fortress above Nafplio: 999 steps according to legend, more like 857 in reality.
6. 6MesseneA city founded in 369 BC by Epaminondas, with its stadium and its walls.

The Peloponnese in pictures

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Nafplio seen from Akronafplia, with the Argolic Gulf and the islet of Bourtzi.

The Peloponnese table

The Peloponnese is a land of olives: the Kalamata variety, purple and almond-shaped, has its own designation of origin. In the Mani, people eat siglino, salted and smoked pork, and sausages flavoured with orange peel. For dessert, diples are strips of fried dough drizzled with honey.

Near Mycenae, Nemea makes red wines from the agiorgitiko grape. Monemvasia gave its name to malmsey, a sweet wine sold all over Europe in the Middle Ages and revived with a designation of origin in 2010. In the harbours of the Mani and in Gythio, you eat grilled fish.