ABSTRACT
From the high country of Arkadia, the heart of the Peloponnese, several mountain ranges extend towards the sea, delineating various lowland regions, such as Argolis, Lakonia, Messenia and, in the north-west, Eleia. It was possible to enter Eleia from the interior of the Peloponnese, using one of two major routes. The first of these led travellers south-westward through the precipitous landscape of north-western Arkadia, with Mount Lampeia on their right and beyond it the 'formidable obstacle' of the long ridge of Mount Erymanthos. The other major route from Arkadia into Eleia, leading down from south-western Arkadia directly into the Alpheios valley, constituted the most common means of entering the region from the inland of the Peloponnese. Today, a small bay two kilometres north of the port of Katakolo is shielded by the tiny Tigani Island, but before a catastrophic earthquake in the sixth century ad 'the island and its southern shoals had protected the harbour of ancient Pheia'.
