Mani district, a dry, arid and wild land on Taenaron Peninsula in the southern Peloponnese, is renowned for its strict moral philosophy and the insubordinate attitude of its people. Virtually all the houses in the villages are tower houses, remnants of the ages when the locals were preserving their sovereignity against the aspiring conquerors.

I visited Mani for a long weekend, between 12 and 14 March 2005. These pictures, which can convey only a small sense of the experience a visitor lives in the area, reveal a completely different way of life. A trip to Mani is a passage in time.