Mount Aenos or Ainos (Ancient Greek: '' Ὄρος Αἶνος''; Modern Greek: '' Όρος Αίνος''; Italian: ''Monte Nero'' or ''Montagna Nera'') is the tallest mountain on the Ionian island of

Cephalonia Kefalonia or Cephalonia ( el, Κεφαλονιά), formerly also known as Kefallinia or Kephallenia (), is the largest of the Ionian Islands in western Greece and the 6th largest island in Greece after Crete, Euboea, Lesbos, Rhodes and Chios. It ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, with an elevation of . Its bedrock is predominantly

dolomite Dolomite may refer to: *Dolomite (mineral), a carbonate mineral *Dolomite (rock), also known as dolostone, a sedimentary carbonate rock *Dolomite, Alabama, United States, an unincorporated community *Dolomite, California, United States, an unincor ...

and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

age. Most of the mountain range is designated as a National Park area and is covered with

Greek fir ''Abies cephalonica'' or Greek fir is a fir native to the mountains of Greece, primarily in the Peloponnesos and the island of Kefallonia, intergrading with the closely related Bulgarian fir further north in the Pindus mountains of northern Gre ...

(''Abies cephalonica'') and black pine (''Pinus nigra'').''Mount Ainos of Kefalonia''
on kefaloniainfo.net. Pine forests are found between the elevations of . Semi-wild ponies inhabit its forest. On clear days, the view includes the northwest

Peloponnese The Peloponnese (), Peloponnesus (; el, Πελοπόννησος, Pelopónnēsos,(), or Morea is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which ...

and

Aetolia Aetolia ( el, Αἰτωλία, Aἰtōlía) is a mountainous region of Greece on the north coast of the Gulf of Corinth, forming the eastern part of the modern regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. Geography The Achelous River separates Aetoli ...

along with the

islands An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Zakynthos Zakynthos (also spelled Zakinthos; el, Ζάκυνθος, Zákynthos ; it, Zacinto ) or Zante (, , ; el, Τζάντε, Tzánte ; from the Venetian form) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. It is the third largest of the Ionian Islands. Z ...

Lefkada Lefkada ( el, Λευκάδα, ''Lefkáda'', ), also known as Lefkas or Leukas ( Ancient Greek and Katharevousa: Λευκάς, ''Leukás'', modern pronunciation ''Lefkás'') and Leucadia, is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea on the west coast of G ...

, and

Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...

. No ski resorts are found on this mountain range, but there are beautiful caves to be seen in the north. A highway passes over the mountain range connecting traffic from southwestern to the eastern part of the island is one of the few roads going into the mountain range. Approximately 3,000 to 4,000 people live on the slopes of Ainos. Multiple television and cellphone relay towers occupy the summit.

Walking Route

The easiest way to get to the summit is to drive along the Mt Ainos road from the North West to the

transmitter station A transmitter station or transmission facility is an installation used for transmitting radio frequency signals for wireless communication, broadcasting, microwave link, mobile telephone or other purposes. Choice of location The location may b ...

. Leave your car here and then continue along the dirt track on foot for about 10 minutes until you reach some steps to the right and a sign post. Go up these steps for another 10 minutes to reach the summit. A concrete post at the summit has a metal container strapped to it, this contains a visitor book. A more strenuous walk is the well maintained and signposted route from Digaleto, on the road from

Sami Acronyms * SAMI, ''Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange'', a closed-captioning format developed by Microsoft * Saudi Arabian Military Industries, a government-owned defence company * South African Malaria Initiative, a virtual expertise ...

Poros Poros ( el, Πόρος) is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, about south from the port of Piraeus and separated from the Peloponnese by a wide sea channel, with the town of Galatas on the mainland across the ...

. Drive, or walk, along the road heading West, signposted to Ainos/Einos. The official walk starts at a quarry, about 1 km out of the village. Walk through the quarry and follow the signs containing a white square on a yellow background (some of these signs are a little rusty and appear to be red, or will have fallen down but the pathway is quite obvious). All the major junctions have a map and most have shaded rest areas. Much of the walk is below the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

and can be cool even in the summer, there are occasional view points along the route. The climb is 1096 metres and the length is 6.5 km. Mount Ainos in Kefalonia Greece.jpg, Mount Ainos viewed from the west Ainos National Park, Kefallonia, Greece (4).jpg, Greek fir forest at Ainos

References

{{authority control Landforms of Cephalonia Ainos National parks of Greece Tourist attractions in the Ionian Islands (region) Ainos One-thousanders of Greece