The mythical and much talked about sinkhole of Ancient Sparta "Caida" actually exists! A place so mythical and that so much has been written about it and its use by the Ancient Spartans, that most believe it does not exist.
And yet, Kaiadas exists and is located in the village of Trypi in Laconia, a few kilometers outside the city of Sparta. It may not have the form that most people imagine, that is, a huge crater in the earth with endless depth, but it is just as impressive, especially up close.
As the Up Stories Team reports, Kaiadas initially looks like a gap in a conical hill at the end of the village, but when you get closer to it, the sight becomes quite impressive . At the base of the fissure a double entrance is created with a vertical flow from which very strong and cold air comes out and as far as you can see inside it gives you the impression that it leads to the tartar of the earth.
See Kaiada from above in an impressive drone video:
This cave chasm can be connected to the ancient testimonies about the form and purpose of Kaiada and in particular to its use for swallowing their enemies or other convicts. Which, of course, is correct since they were throwing the "unwanted" in there.
According to historical references, Aristomenes, the hero of the 2nd Messenian war, was thrown by the Spartans into Keida along with 50 Messenian prisoners. Also, in Caias, the Spartans dumped the dead body of their king Pausanias who had been sentenced to death for treason. Abyss precipitation was even practiced in Athens, Corinth, Delphi and Thessaly.
In Thessaly this place of punishment was called ''Korakes''. Even today, very often when something or someone makes us angry, we give them a no-return ticket to the crow... that is, we say the familiar phrase "hail to the crow!" The phrase found in the ancient texts is "pêpein ἐs korakas".
Besides the self-evident torture, the punishment also contained metaphysical implications, as the body remained buried and the soul could not be redeemed. But there were places where deformed and sick babies were left to be raised by the Helots. Caiadas has probably been wrongly identified with the Depositors, that is, the place where the Spartans deposited unfit infants, as mentioned by Plutarch and only he, in the life of Lycurgus.
Modern researchers argue that only children with severe deformities and not minor disabilities, but also children from unwanted pregnancies, had this fate.