MESSENIA, GULF OF

Modern Greek Messiniaks Klpos, formerly Gulf Of Korni, or Gulf Of Kalamta, gulf of the Ionian Sea in the noms (department) of Messenia, southwestern Peloponnese, Greece. It is enclosed by the Likdhimon ros (mountain) and kra (cape) Akrtas on the west and the Mani peninsula on the east. The non-navigable Pmisos Potams (river), rising in the Mnthi ros of Messenia, debouches at the head of the gulf just west of Kalmai, a manufacturing centre and the second port of the Peloponnese. On the east side of the Akrtas is the port of Korni (ancient Asine), originally settled by Argives after the First Messenian War (c. 735c. 715 BC). Reoccupied during the Middle Ages by refugees from the north who gave it the name of their former village, Korni retains Byzantine, Venetian, and Turkish fortifications. In 1828 the French landed in this gulf during the War of Greek Independence to help clear the Peloponnese of Turks.