Kalamata, formerly Kalamai or, during the time of Homer, Fares is a city in the southwestern Peloponnese, capital of the Prefecture of Messinia and a port of southern mainland Greece. The city is built at the foot of Mount Kalathi (edge ​​of Taygetos), in the heart of the Messinian Gulf. Kalamata – the capital and central port of Messinia – is revealed to us in the innards of the Messinian Gulf, probably founded on the site of the Homeric city of Farai.