Travelling within the Peloponnese Page 8 (see Greece train map)

On the coast road near Mili are some beach towns, including Astros and Aghios Andreas (which are low lying) and the higher, more scenic villages of Paralia Tiriou and Plaka. Leonidhi, which is inland, is the terminus of a major Argos bus route and the starting point for a very picturesque road that leads through the only pass in the Mt Parnon range. This road climbs past the Elonis monastery to the high mountain village of Kosmas and ends in the Byzantine center of Yeraki. Plaka , the port of Leonidhi, 4km distant from it, is a good resting point on the road trip to Monemvasia. The other, inland road from Mili, passes many isolated mountain villages, and is a wide, paved road that was carved into the edge of the mountain.

Heading west to Tripoli from Mili, the railway continues past villages through the red gorge of Kiveri and then opens out into the valley of Akhladhokambos ( which means 'plain of pear trees), and the next hour is rugged high mountain country leading to the province/prefecture of Arkadia. On the high slopes of Mt. Parthenion (1215 meters), are cement and concrete aqueducts . Akladhokambos is named for the wild pear tree that grew here, and the village of the same name (population around 1000) is dug into the side of the mountain 300meters up from the rail station in the valley.

After here, the rail line begins climbing into the Arkadhian Alps, and the steepness of the climb is manifested in more engine noise. At 735 meters /2410feet, the train crosses the highest railway bridge in Greece, at the Syrtis curve. The five-span bridge is 69meters/226feet high, 250meters/820feet long. It was originally a stone bridge with five arches, completed in 1891, and was acclaimed at the time as the largest public works project in the new Greek nation (this before the completion of the Corinth Canal). The modern bridge was built in 1973-74 to replace the stone bridge, which was destroyed in 1944 by the retreating Nazis. During the 30-year interim, a system of switchback trains was required to deal with the lack of a bridge, and some 500 wagons of all sorts are still there (though the locomotives have been moved to lower ground).

Beyond the bridge, the Akhladhokambos appears on the left side of the train, which passes slowly over the last four viaducts, climbing steadily, with views finally of the Argolic Gulf. The train then passes through the very isolated villages of Eleohori, Partheni, and Steno, the latter on the high Plain of Tripoli where Early Bronze Age metal working kilns were found. Tegea (see article) was near here. This area marks the entry into the Arkadia of legend and myth, regarded by the ancients as the home of Pelasgos, the earliest man. The Greek word 'pelagos' means 'open sea' and the earliest inhabitants of what is now Greece have been called 'Pelasgians' or 'Sea Peoples' (a kind of catch-all due to the fact that noone seems to know where the first people that occupied ancient Greece really came from, though many suspect Anatolia as their place of origin.

Tripoli is a pleasant city, with a population of around 30,000, with small parks and outdoor cafes, though many find it uninteresting. See Tripoli for more details about this city. There are many buses from here to ancient Tegea, and to other sites in eastern Arkadhia, as well as to the villages of the Mantinia region to the west., and to Demitsana and Andritsena. There are also buses to the southern Peloponnese.

The Peloponnese by Train page: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

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