Hikes
TAYGETOS MOUNTAIN RANGE
The ‘erotic fusion of sun and stone’
Nikiforos Vrettakos.
The Pythagorean philosophers believed that Taygetos was an energy place, a gateway where nature chose to transmit knowledge, spirit and Greek culture to people.
Majestic and imposing, Taygetos is one of the largest mountains of Greece and the highest in the Peloponnese (2407 m.). With a length of approximately 115 km and an area of 2,500 square kilometres, the range starts in Arcadia and ends at Cape Tainaro, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnese and mainland Europe. This stone wall, strict and imposing, marked the history of all Laconia and especially the laws and customs of ancient Sparta and later the history of Byzantine Mystras.
The beauties of this ‘masculine mountain’ are inexhaustible:
beautiful villages, stone paths, impressive gorges, many endemic birds and plants. It is no coincidence that this is where the mainland part of the famous European E4 mountain trail ends, which, starting in Spain, crosses all of Europe.