Epirus / Ήπειρος

In ancient times, the historical landscape was a Greek kingdom in its own right and became a Roman province from 148 BC. Dodona, the most important ancient Greek oracle site after Delphi, is located here. Today, the area belongs to Greece and part of Albania. Today, however, only the southern Greek part is referred to as Epirus. The smallest, least populated and most rugged Greek region extends in the west of Greece along the coast of the Ionian Sea in the south to the Ceraunian Mountains in the north.

The highest elevation is Mount Smolikas at 2,637 metres. Only one fifth of Epirus is not mountainous and the soil is very calcareous. In the west, the mountains slope down to the coast of the Ionian Sea. The two wine-growing areas are Zitsa, west of the capital Ioannina and classified as POP, and Metsovo, east of the capital, which is not classified. Close to the western coast are the Ionian Islands (see also Aegean).

Map of Greece: By Pitichinaccio - own work, CC BY 3.0, Link
edited by Norbert F. J. Tischelmayer 2/2018