Diros Caves (Vlychada)

At Diros, on the west coast of the Mani peninsula, visitors travel through a cave by boat. A flat-bottomed punt glides along flooded passages where stalactites hang just above the water and columns rise out of still, clear pools; the cave was formed when the sea level was lower, and later rising waters filled its galleries.

The main cave, known as Vlychada or Glyfada, is a horizontal karst system in limestone and the longest known cave in Greece, with about 15,400 metres mapped by 2007. Local people found it in 1923, and the speleologists Ioannis and Anna Petrocheilou began its systematic exploration in 1949; by the time Ioannis died in 1960, about 1,600 metres had been explored. It opened as a show cave in 1961, and divers and cavers have since kept extending the known passages, recording stalactites even at 71 metres below the water surface, proof that these chambers were once dry. The tourist route covers about 2,800 metres by boat, taking around 25 minutes, followed by a walk of about 300 metres on foot.

Just 220 metres to the east lies Alepotrypa, a separate cave discovered in 1958, where archaeologists found traces of a Neolithic settlement dating from about 5300 to 3200 BC, among the most important prehistoric sites in southern Greece.

The Mani is the central of the three southern prongs of the Peloponnese, a dry, rocky land known for its stone tower houses; Pyrgos Dirou, the village above the caves, is named after one such tower.

Getting there

The caves are near the village of Pyrgos Dirou in the Mani, Laconia. The nearest larger town is Sparta, about 49 km away. The nearest airport is Kalamata (KLX), about 57 km away.