Taygetos

The mountain is named after Taygete, a nymph and daughter of Atlas. Its highest peak is named Taletos. Local people however call it Prophitis Elias. According to Nifakos:
“Spartans used to call the mountain ‘Taygetos’ while local people called it ‘Prophitis Elias’ ”

For the people of Mani, where according to Nikiforos Vrettakos we encounter the “love making of the sun and stone”, Taygetos is a symbol since in its peaks the flame of Freedom was maintained inextinguishable.  This is where they built their villages, 98 out of which the Greek State has recognized as traditional settlements (118 in total in Peloponnese). From Eastern Mani a section of Taygetos’ peak displays the approximate shape of a five-fingered fist thus its other name Pentadaktylos (Greek for five-fingered).

The visitor can enjoy speleology, mountain biking, trekking and climbing at the mountains’ hillsides or gorges, routes that are analyzed in our web page.

Taygetos is a mountain young in age that is still developing, rising each year by one centimeter; therefore we do not know which will be its height over the centuries and which generation will see it taller than other mountains.

Researchers have recorded, according to the latest calculations, more from 6.500 types of plants in Greece, among which 1.150 are not found elsewhere in the world. Compared to its surface, Greece has the richest flora in Europe. The 2.500 types have been recorded in the mountains of Peloponnese. In Taygetos the big alternation of biotopes has as a result the flourishing of 600 types of plants (without having completed the recording yet), among which more than 120 are Greek endemic plants, that is to say they grow in Taygetos and at least in one more Greek mountain.
Thirty two (32) of these are mountain endemic, that is to say unique in the world. This rich flora proves the uniqueness of the mountain and of the region, while the flora is rich in aromatic plants (oregano, mint, thyme, tea, lavender, etc).