The Entrance to the Underworld

A single path will lead you to the end of the world. Fifteen kilometres past the last gas station, a winding mountain road takes travellers up and over the narrowest part of the Mani peninsula, down towards Cape Matapan, and ends at a sign that proclaims: Sanctuary and Death Oracle of Poseidon Tainarios ( Figure 2.1 ). From here, you can only proceed on foot – you may choose the path to the right that meanders past the scant ruins of Hellenistic and Roman houses, leading upwards over a barren landscape with endless stones in the baking heat, to a modern lighthouse that stands proudly as the southernmost point in mainland Greece. Here, as you look out across the shining waters of the Mediterranean while the waves crash on the rocks below, you will surely understand the feeling of standing at the edge of the world. A passing ship, barely visible in the distance, reminds you that perhaps there is more out there than the boundless expanse of sea that unfolds before your eyes, stretching out until the shores of Libya 400 kilometres to the south. Back at the sign, however, you may instead choose the shorter, easier path to the left, which leads down to a lovely small bay with an inviting, calm beach. Foundations of an ancient building and channel are cut into the bedrock on the shore and connected to these is an unassuming hollow in the hillside, a cavern with trees growing in the shade and obscuring the view inside. You have made it: you have found the mythical entrance to the ancient Greek underworld .