Top 10 things to see in and around Pylos
Bay of Voidokilia
"New" Venetian Castle of Pylos at the w-part of town
"Old" Venetian Castle of Pylos old: on the hill to the north of Sphacteria and the south of Voidokilia
Lagune and Swamp of Gialova: with unique fauna and flora
Cave of Nestor (south of bay of Voidokilia
Bay of Navarino
Palace of Nestor 5 km north of Pylos, on the way to Kiparissia
The 'beehive'-tombs near
Sunset over Bay of Navarino and Sphacteria or at Gargaliani beach
Harbour of Pylos
The area of Pylos has a variety of landscapes to visit, with their own marvelous geomorphological history.
The western limestone-ridgeThe city of Pylos is built on a limestone-ridge which goes north-south. It starts in the south at the town of Methoni, runs to the west of the road Methoni-Pylos where it creates one of the highest hills in the region, Ayos Nikolaos, before it dips to the city of Pylos. To the N of Pylos, the limestone-ridge get's interrupted creating a set of connections between the bay of Navarino and the Ionian sea. Also the amazing bay of Voidokilia is such an interruption in the limestone ridge. It is here that the wves of the Ionias sea created one of the most spectacual beaches of Greece. The breaking up of the limestone ridge caused the creation of the uninhabited island of Sphacteria.The island of Sphacteria has a very steep eastern cliff. This is because a faultline is running here N-S and you are looking at a fault-mirror. This means that the island was lifted and the area, currently the bay of Navarino dropped. This happened during the Alpine mountain creation Tertiary.The limestone ridge is not very fertile, and is covered by bushes, low grasses and herb vegetation maquis. A great place to see snakes. It is mainly used to let sheep and goats graze.Although limestone is known for karst phenomena such as caves and dolines, the number of this kind of phenomena is very limited. Nevertheless, there is a nice cave to visit, just south of Voidokilia. It is now called the Cave of Nestor.
The eastern limestone-horstTo the east of Pylos, a massive limestone bock, is sticking out above the landscape, and forms a plateau. When you take the road from Kalamata to Pylos, you will notice you come down a few hundred meters before you reach the bay of NavarinoWhen you take the road from Methoni to Pylos, you will see on the left west the western limestone ridge and to the right east the limestone horst. It is in this limestone horst you find the quarry of Paleochori, where you can find some great calcite-minerals.
The marl-area between Pylos-KalitheaIn the tertiary, a sea was covering the whole area around Pylos, with a few exceptions of the highest hill-tops actually, the land was much lower, and got uplifted later on, rather than the sea being much higherIf you take the road from Pylos to Kalithea, you will see to the south a flat area, mainly covered with olive-groves. This is a marl-plateau, and it was one the bottom of a tertiairy see where fine sand and clays were deposited. You can still find a large collection of seashells in the deposits: mainly old forms of oysters.
The Flysch area to the East of Methoni
The Plateau of Paleonero
