yros Caves in Laconia, overlooking the Messenian Gulf (ill. 2), were known already at the end of the 19th century, but their scientific exploration began almost half a century later.  In 1949, Ioannis and Anna Petrochilos explored 5,000 square meters of the large cavern they named Glyfada (or Vlyhada), covering  33,400 square meters. In 1958 they explored the second large cave, called Alepotripa.  The explorations revealed prehistoric graffitti, skeletons, weapons, and fragments of pottery.  The Dyros cave complex, still not completely charted,  is among the largest and most spectacular in Europe, featuring incredible formations of stalactites and stalagmites, an underground stream and lakes, narrow passages and enormous halls (ill. 1, 3-9).  Today, a flat-bottom boat tour around Glyfada takes about thirty minutes.  Scholars believe that at the end of the neolitic period a cataclysmic earthquake caused the sea to flood the caves, kill all their inhabitants, and hide the entrance for 45 centuries.

( home)