SHELLS AT 2000 METERS!
Mount Ntourntouvana (or Pentelia) is located at an altitude of 2078 m. The name Ntourntouvana has Slavic origins and means Rose Tree. The place seems to be associated with atrocities associated with the end of World War II. More specifically, at the entrance of the pothole ” Feneos Hole”, according to tradition, hundreds (according to some data may be thousands) of people were driven there and got executed, from the nearby area as well as from the wider Peloponnese area who were allegedly accused of traitors. In 1945, the skeletons of approximately 150 people were recovered from the pothole.
GEODIVERSITY
This is a place of great geological interest for both its rocks and fossils. In the neritic (shallow sea) limestones of Tripolis Unit marine mollusk fossils such as rudists (thick-toothed inequivalved bivalve mollusks that dominated the Cretaceous seas) and other bivalve shells, some of which can be observed macroscopically. Also, the limestone shows intense underground karstification (dissolution of limestone by the action of water that causes cracking, formation of cavities, potholes, caves, etc.). The dissolution of the limestones also led to the creation of a large pothole (estimated maximum depth 190 m), formed between Ntourntouvana and Lake Doxa, one of the most important cave- pothole systems in the area, known as the “Feneos Hole”. It is a pothole with rich cave decoration (speleothems such as stalactites and stalagmites), at the deepest point of which a small lake has been formed.
BIODIVERSITY
In glades of the Kefalonian fir forests of Ntourntourvana, and in rocky limestone localities, we find dozens of Greek endemic plant taxa, such as the Greek endemic Achillea grandifolia subsp. hellenica, the Peloponnesian endemic Centaurea athoa subsp. chelmea, as well as aromatic and medicinal plants, such as the mountain tea (Sideritis clandestina subsp. peloponnesiaca,) and oregano (Origanum vulgare subsp. hirtum).
Ntourntourvana is located within the Special Protection Area (SPA) for avifauna “OROS CHELMOS (AROANIA)-FARANGI VOURAIKOU KAI PERIOCHI KALAVRYTON” (GR2320013). The avifauna of the area is of great interest and includes birds, such as the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), and the Eurasian eagle-owl (Bubo bubo).
