Cape Matapan
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Cape Matapan, also known as Cape Tenaro or Tainaro (Greek: Ακρωτήριο Ταίναρο), is situated at the end of the Mani, Laconia, Greece. Cape Matapan is the southernmost point of mainland Greece and of Europe. It separates the Messenian Gulf in the west from the Laconian Gulf in the east.
Cape Matapan has been an important place for thousands of years. The ancient Spartans built several temples here dedicated to various gods. Cape Matapan was once the place were mercenaries waited to be employed.
More recently a lighthouse was constructed but it is now in disuse. In March 1941, off the coast of Cape Matapan, a major naval battle, the Battle of Cape Matapan, occurred between the Royal Navy and the Regia Marina, in which the British emerged victorious in a one-sided encounter. The Battle's main result was to drastically reduce future Italian naval activity in the Eastern Mediterranean.
There is a cave at the tip of Cape Matapan that Greek legends claim was the home of Hades, the god of the dead. As well, on the hill situated above the cave lie the remnants of an ancient temple dedicated to the sea god Poseidon (Νεκρομαντείο του Ποσειδόνα). Under the Byzantine empire, the temple was converted into a Christian church, and Christian rites are conducted there to this day.
As the southernmost point of the Balkan Peninsula, the cape is on the migration route of birds headed to Africa.
At Cape Matapan, the Titanic's would-be rescue ship, the SS Californian, was torpedoed and sunk by German forces in 1915.
