Monemvasia by drone, Peloponnese | GREECE 🇬🇷

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Monemvasia is a town and municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located on a small island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. The island is connected to the mainland by a short causeway 200 metres in length. Its area consists mostly of a large plateau some 100 m above sea level, up to 300 m wide and 1 kilometre long. Founded in the sixth century, and thus one of the oldest continually-inhabited fortified towns in Europe, the town is the site of a once-powerful medieval fortress, and was at one point one of the most important commercial centres in the Eastern Mediterranean. The town's walls and many Byzantine churches remain as testaments to the town's history.

The town's name derives from two Greek words, moni (μόνη, 'single') and emvasis (έμβασις, 'approach'), together meaning "city of the single approach, or entrance". Monemvasia has been nicknamed "the Gibraltar of the East".

Monemvasia consists of the upper town, which is located on the plateau of the hill, and the lower town, which is built on the southern coast of the peninsula. The upper town is no longer inhabited, as it was abandoned after the second Venetian occupation. The entrance to the upper town today is through a fortified gate to which a winding path ascends from the lower town. A second entrance used to be on the north side, but was sealed during the first occupation by the Ottoman Empire.