HOME OF KINGS
Location: Southern Greece
Capital: Patras
Size: 21,549.6 Km2
Accessibility: By car, ferry or plane landing at the airports of Patra and Kalamata
The legendary land of Peloponnese has a history rooting as far back as Ancient Greece. It is the home of the first ever Olympic Games, the setting of Homer’s epic tales, the scene where civilizations flourished and kings roamed, leaving a tremendous cultural heritage. Since the construction of the Corinth Canal in 1893, Peloponnese is rarely, if ever, referred to as an "island". It has two land connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth, and an artificial one in the Rio-Antirio bridge. It possesses four south-pointing peninsulas shaped like fingers, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Maleas (Epidaurus Limera), and the Argolid. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast: the Argo-Saronic islands to the east, and the Ionian to the west. The islands of Kythera and Antikythera, off the Cape Maleas at the south, are considered part of the Ionian Islands.