Destinations / Peloponnese / Cape Tainaron
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Cape Tainaron also named as Cape Matapan is situated at the end of the Mani Peninsula and it is considered to be the southernmost point of mainland Greece and the second southernmost point in mainland Europe.
Cape Tainaron has been an important place for thousands of years. The tip of Cape Matapan was the site of the ancient town Tenarus, near which there was (and still is) a cave that Greek legends claim was the home of Hades, the god of the dead. The ancient Spartans built several temples there, dedicated to various gods. On the hill situated above the cave, lie the remnants of an ancient temple dedicated to the sea god Poseidon. Under the Byzantine Empire, the temple was converted into a Christian church, and Christian rites are conducted there to this day. Cape Matapan was once the place where mercenaries waited to be employed.
Destinations Peloponnese Cape Tainaron Epos Travel Tours
Destinations Peloponnese Cape Tainaron Epos Travel Tours
At Cape Matapan, the Titanic’s would-be rescue ship, the SS Californian, was torpedoed and sunk by German forces on 9 November 1915. In March 1941, a major naval battle, the Battle of Cape Matapan, occurred off the coast of Cape Matapan, between the Royal Navy and the Italian Regia Marina, in which the British emerged victorious in a one-sided encounter. The encounter’s main result was to drastically reduce future Italian naval activity in the Eastern Mediterranean.
More recently a lighthouse was constructed, but it is now in disuse.
As the southernmost point of mainland Greece, the cape is on the migration route of birds headed to Africa.
Map of Cape Tainaron
Memorable Tours in Cape Tainaron, Peloponnese
Grand Classical Tour of Greece
With this epic 10day journey you come in contact with classical Greece, with the legendary Peloponnese, with the glorious cities of Macedonia where Alexander the Great lived before the long and glorious campaign to the East and with the wonderful geological formations of the Meteora of Thessaly that in the late Byzantine period were changed to Christian monastic enclaves.
Tracing the steps of Hercules in the Peloponnese and Delphi – 10 days
Get ready for an amazing 10-day / 9-night, high-end Culture Route program that combines astonishingly the private tour of the impressive Greek Mythology of seven of the twelve tribes of Heracles in the Peloponnese.
Our journey will last six days and during this time we will have the opportunity to tell more about the mythology, the history and the social organization of the areas through the centuries.
