Pausanias in his description of Laconia noted two sanctuaries within a short distance of Sparta on the road to Arcadia and Megalopolis The modern bridle-track leading in the same direction past the villages of Kastaniá and Leondári crosses the Acropolis hill, and emerges into the plain of the Eurotas about a quarter of a mile from the iron bridge on the Sparta-Tripolis high road; it then passes between a shoulder of the hill Análipsis and the vineyards on the right bank of the river. We may assume that the ancient road followed the same course, at any rate for some miles from Sparta, since any other direction would entangle it in the network of low hills and torrent-beds stretching from the river to Taygetus itself.