TOP OF TAIGETOS

Majestic and imposing, "high and upright mountain" according to Strabo, Taygetos is one of the largest mountains in Greece, with a length of approximately 115 km, a maximum width of 30 km and an area of ​​2,500 square kilometers. Its impressive massif has the highest height of all the mountains of the Peloponnese (2,407 m.) and is therefore characterized as the "dome of Moria". Taygetos occupies areas of the prefectures of Laconia, Messinia and Arcadia. To the east, it is separated from Parnon by the Evrotas river. To the west, its ends reach the Messinian plain, while to the south the Mani peninsula juts out between the Laconic and Messinian gulfs. To the north, the Megalopolis basin is sandwiched between the Arcadian mountains and the northernmost reaches of Taygetus. The name Taygetos, as Pausanias testifies, has mythological roots. It comes from Taygete, one of the Atlanteans, who, shamed by her unwitting mating with Zeus, ended her life by falling off a mountain cliff. Great poets such as Nikiforos Vrettakos have written about him and his magnificence "Thus Taygetos stood for me until the two children of God were born in me: poetry and love