Peloponnese
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus (Template:Lang-el; see also List of Greek place names) is a large peninsula (technically an island since the 1893 construction of the Corinth Canal) and region in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea (Template:Lang-el, colloq. Μωριάς), a name still in colloquial use.
The peninsula is divided among three distinct peripheries of modern Greece: most of it belongs to the Peloponnese Periphery, and parts belong to the West Greece and Attica peripheries.
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Prefectures
- Arcadia
- Argolis
- Corinthia (except municipalities of Agioi Theodoroi and most of Loutraki-Perachora, which lie east of the Corinth Canal)
- Laconia
- Messinia
- Achaea
- Elis
- Piraeus (only the municipalities of Methana, Troizina, and part of Poros)
Cities
The principal modern cities of the Peloponnese are (2001 census):
- Patras (169,242 inhabitants)
- Kalamata (54,065 inhabitants)
- Corinth (30,434 inhabitants)
- Tripoli (28,976 inhabitants)
- Argos (25,068 inhabitants)
- Pyrgos (24,765 inhabitants)
- Aigion (21,966 inhabitants)
- Sparta (16,473 inhabitants)
- Nafplion (13,124 inhabitants)
Archaeological sites
The Peloponnese possesses many important archaeological sites dating from the Bronze Age through to the Middle Ages. Among the most notable are:
- Bassae (ancient town and the temple of Epikourios Apollo)
- Corinth (ancient city)
- Epidaurus (ancient religious and healing centre)
- Messene (ancient city)
- Mistra (medieval fortress-town near Sparta)
- Monemvasia (medieval fortress-town)
- Mycenae (fortress-town of the eponymous civilization)
- Olympia (site of the Ancient Olympic Games)
- Sparta
- Pylos (the palace of Nestor)
- Tegea (ancient religious centre)
- Tiryns (ancient fortified settlement)
See also
