Peloponnese village to host new paleontology museum

The Peloponnese is set to get its first museum of paleontology and natural history, with a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for Saturday morning in the village of Isioma, on the outskirts of Megalopoli in Arcadia.

The project is being launched in cooperation with the University of Athens, which already has a public information kiosk in Isioma, where it showcases rare finds made in the area, such as the fossilized remains of hippos, rhinos and Palaeoloxodon antiquus, an extinct species of elephant which inhabited in Greece in the Middle and Late Pleistocene.

“We hope to see the project completed within two years. Our budget is 450,000 euros for the building and 250,000 euros for equipping the museum, which will be spread out across three levels with a total area of 300 square meters,” said Demi Giannakopoulou, the head of the local community association, which donated the land on which the museum will be built.