Oitylo & East Mani, The Peloponnese

Easter Vacation in The Peloponnese – Discovering Oitylo & East Mani

Several years ago, in April 2008, we spent our Easter vacation in Areopolis, Mani. Since I had never shared this trip and the season is fitting, I have decided to go ahead and do so now. Ok, first things first, let’s get the many, many insanely confusing geographical locations out of the way!

The Peloponnese (Pelopónnēsos in Greek) is a peninsula and a geographic region in southern Greece. It is attached to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth. Mani is the central peninsula of a series of three (on the Peloponnese itself) that extend south and is basically a continuation of the Taygetus mountain range. The Peloponnese is divided into several regional units, one of which is Laconia—bordered by Messenia to the west and Arcadia to the north (both Laconia and Messenia lie over the Mani Peninsula).

Laconia is surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea (Myrtöo Pelagos in Greek, a subdivision of the Mediterranean Sea that lies between the Cyclades & the Peloponnese) to the east, the Laconian Gulf & the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and by the Messenian Gulf (part of the Ionian Sea) to the west. This regional unit is divided into five municipalities: Sparta, East Mani, Elafonisos, Evrotas, and Monemvasia.

Finally, the East Mani municipality is further divided into four municipal units: East Mani (yes, the municipality and one of its units share the same name), Gytheio, Oitylo, and Smynos.

Are you still with me? Let’s explore East Mani and Oitylo!

**Please note that all map views in this post are not in a normal map-view direction! North is inverted to South (see big fat arrow below), so think of it as a kind of street view instead. It is what you would be looking towards if you were driving with us from Attica to Laconia and then from Aeropolis to all other places.

Areopolis & Limeni

Areopolis is a small town in the municipal unit of Oitylo. It lies 12.5 miles/20 km southwest of Gytheio, which in ancient times used to be the seaport of Sparta. Yes, yes, King Leonidas’ (aka Gerald Butler’s) Sparta, currently the capital city of Laconia. In Greek, Areopolis means The City of Ares, named after one of the twelve Olympians, a son of Zeus & Hera, the ancient Greek God of War.

Gerolimenas

Gerolimenas is a small, picturesque coastal village in the municipal unit of Oitylo. Its name may mean old harbor in contemporary Greek, but it comes from the ancient Ieros Limen [Ιερός Λιμήν], meaning sacred harbor. One of the remotest settlements in the Peloponnese, until the 1970s, it was mainly reached by boat! In the past, it was a major fishing market and a shipyard.

But guess what? Gerolimenas is also the “birthplace” of Kicking Back the Pebbles! It is where I had shot this—very familiar to you—picture, not knowing, back then, that it would someday feature as KBtP’s avatar and not having the faintest clue about blogging altogether!

Vatheia

Further to the south of Gerolimenas is Vatheia (alternative: Vathia). It is one of the best-preserved ancient settlements in Greece. It poses extreme architectural interest because it is an iconic example of structures blending perfectly with their natural surroundings (the characteristic of south Maniot vernacular architecture—the tower houses—as it developed during the 19th century).

Porto Kagio

Porto Kagio (alternatives: Porto Káïo, Porto Kayio) is a seaside village in the East Mani municipal unit.  It faces a small bay of the Laconian Gulf and is about 3 miles/5 km north of Cape Taenaron, the southernmost tip of the Mani Peninsula and mainland Greece. Its ancient name was Psamathous, but it was renamed by the Franks (12th-14th century CE) to Quail Port (Port des Cailles in French). It was the base of Lambros Katsonis‘ pirate fleet, and during World War II, many British soldiers escaped to Egypt through it.

Cape Taenaron

Cape Taenaron (alternatives: Cape Taenarum, Cape Matapan, Cabo Mettapan, Cavo Matapas, Cavo Matapa) took its name from the mythical hero and son of Zeus, Taenarus, who was believed to have built a town named after himself located near the tip of the peninsula.

In ancient times, Cape Taenaron was known as Poseidion since it was where Poseidon, another of the Twelve Olympians, God of the Sea, was worshiped. During the rule of the Franks, it was also widely known as Cavo Matapas, Cape Matapan, Cabo Mettapan & Cavo Matapa. The origins of its latter names are ambiguous, and some support that they derived from the ancient Greek Metapea Αkra [Μεταπέα Άκρα], meaning either a place surrounded by two seas (as is a peninsula) or a place that is split in two by a passage of water (for example a river).

According to ancient historians, a Temple of Poseidon (also used as a death oracle—Nekromanteion in Greek) used to lie in a small remote cave here, right outside the community of Kokkinogia (where the ancient settlement of Kalavasos used to be). Nowadays, one can see the ruins of the temple or, more precisely, of the Byzantine chapel of Agioi Asomatoi, built on the ancient temple remains. (Asomatoi in Greek means without a body, not having a physical form. The “body-less” Saints attribute in Greek Orthodox tradition is a reference to the Seven Archangels).

It is believed that this was also the location of the Gate to Hades, the gate to the underworld, according to ancient Greek mythology, guarded by Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed hound with a brazen voice, which prevented the dead from escaping! It is the cave through which Hercules descended to the underworld to kidnap Cerberus and bring it up to Earth (to fulfill his twelfth Labor), and Orpheus to bring back to life his beloved wife, Eurydice.

The lighthouse at the tip of Cape Taenaron is the southernmost geographical point of mainland Greece and the Balkan Peninsula and the second southernmost point of continental Europe, after La Punta de Tarifa in Andalusia, Spain.

After a long day’s drive, we returned to Areopolis, where our hostel was, to enjoy this glorious sunset! Many more daily trips took place, and I will soon share two more posts, one on Diros Caves and one on Monemvasia. Stay tuned.

All info on geographical & historical locations from Wikipedia. Map screenshots courtesy of Google.maps. Images by Athina D. Pantazatou for Kicking Back the Pebbles