The Peloponnese is called an island even though it is joined to Greece
Peloponnesos means the island of Pelops, after the mythical hero said to have conquered it. For most of history it was a peninsula hanging off Greece by a narrow neck of land, until an 1893 canal cut through the isthmus and made the old name almost literally true.
The Corinth Canal slices the Isthmus of Corinth between two gulfs, and bridges now span it, including two that sink beneath the water to let ships pass. Another crossing, the Rio–Antirrio bridge, opened near the northern tip in 2004. From the late Middle Ages the region was widely known as the Morea, a name locals still use. Its southern coast splays into four peninsulas pointing south like fingers, while Mount Taygetus rises to 2,407 metres over the interior.
Mainland Europe's first major civilisation, the Mycenaean, governed the region during the Bronze Age from palace centres such as Tiryns, Pylos and Mycenae itself, the world of Heracles, Perseus and the Trojan War. It collapsed abruptly near the end of the second millennium BC, many cities showing signs of destruction, and a dark age without writing followed. The first Olympic Games at Olympia, in 776 BC, are sometimes taken as the dawn of the classical age.
Sparta, Argos and Corinth made the peninsula the heart of Greek power. Spartan-led forces fought Persia at Thermopylae and Plataea and defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War of 431 to 404 BC. Rome ended that independence in 146 BC by razing Corinth, and the region settled into prosperous provincial obscurity. After Alaric's raid in the 390s, the Byzantines built the Hexamilion wall across the isthmus.
The geography remains restless. The whole peninsula is prone to earthquakes, and the island of Elafonisos was once attached to it until the great Crete earthquake of 365 separated them. The climate can be ferocious: Sparta's summer highs top 36 degrees, and on 27 June 2007 Monemvasia's overnight low was 35.9 degrees, the warmest minimum ever logged in continental Europe.
Source: Peloponnese
