It is astonishing that the name is hardly known outside Greece, because it is one of the most extraordinary towns in the whole country. The result is that it remains delightfully unspoiled.

A huge mountain of a rock stands offshore, linked to the mainland by a single stretch of road. It is known as the Gibraltar of Greece.

As you pass through the entrance, you feel that you are stepping back into the fifteenth century, when Monemvasia was a busy Byzantine city of some 50,000 people. Today its permanent population stands at a mere 50, leaving it full of ghosts and echoes of the past. A few of the old houses have been renovated and turned into hotels, and a handful of others are now restaurants and gift shops.