The village of Elos is located near the mouth of the river Evrotas and is 43 km from Sparta. It has about 740 permanent residents. The founder of Elos, Eleios, the son of Perseus, is mentioned by Pausanias and Strabon. In antiquity, there are references of the village name by Homer, where in the Neon Catalog, in Iliad, it is described as "efalon ptoliethron", ("steep city with an acropolis"). It is also reported that coastal Elos had taken part in the Trojan War with twenty warships.
The village was called "Dourali" until 1912. The local name of the village may come from the name that its people were addressed - "Doryalotes", which means “those who have been defeated by the spear or the Dorians”. For this reason, the inhabitants of Elos are also called "Douraliotes".
The visitor, here, can visit the magnificent stone building of the Primary School, the church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, as well as the old rice factory.
