It was another gorgeous day....blue skies and hot. We drove through Piraeus and pas Athens in the distance where one could just make out the acropolis. It didn't take long to reach the canal. We stopped for a coffee and we could walk across one of the bridges and look down into the deep cut into the aquamarine water. Very impressive. We then drove to the Aegean end of the canal and embarked on a boat for our trip to the Ionian Sea.
The idea of a canal through the Isthmus dates to classical times and an abortive effort was made to build it in the 1st century AD. Construction finally got underway in 1881 but was hampered by geological and financial problems that saw the original builders going bankrupt. The idea was to save the 430 mile journey around the Peloponnese and it worked fairly well until the advent of modern ocean freighters. The canal was completed in 1893, but due to the canal's narrowness (70 ft.), navigational problems and periodic closures to repair landslips from its sheer walls, it failed to attract the level of traffic anticipated by its operators. It is now used mainly for tourist traffic. The canal is only 4 miles long and there are no locks since it was dug at sea level.
The round trip was very nice. We were 75 feet down and it was impressive to see the signs of the hand cutting. No explosives were used. In addition to the road and railway bridges, there are two narrow bridges at each end, so at sea level. I have never seen any like them anywhere. Between the banks, the roadway is lowered to the seabed...it literally disappears beneath the water, so that boats can pass. Once the boats have cleared the area, the roadway ascends until it is level with the banks. It is really spooky seeing the road disappear beneath the water.
After our little cruise,we went to a nice resort hotel on the Ionian sea and had a very nice lunch of Greek food: dolma, tzaziki, cous cous etc., all washed down with a Nice dry white wine.
Then it was off to anent Corinth. There are so many permutations of Corinth going back to the 5th millennium BCE: Bacchiadae, Tyrants, Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, Biblical (specifically Paul), Byzantine, Crusader, Ottoman.
The ruins of Ancient Corinth are spread out at the foot of the huge rock of Acrocorinth atop which is found the acropolis. Until it was eclipsed by Athens in the 5th century BCE, Corinth was the biggest and wealthiest classical Greek city-state, with two bustling ports, a famous ceramics industry and distant colonies in Syracuse in Sicily and Kerkyra on Corfu. The town was prosperous until it was razed in 146 BCE by the Roman general, Lucius Mummius. In 44 BCE, Julius Caesar rebuilt Corinth as a Roman colony. Consequently, the remaining monuments are mainly Roman; only a few are Greek. Attaining a population of 750,000 under the patronage of the emperors, the town gained a reputation for licentious living that St. Paul attacked when he came here in 52 CE. Excavations have revealed the vast extent of the city, destroyed in Byzantine times by earthquakes. The ruins constitute the largest Roman township in Greece. We wound our way through the Lechaion way with it's footpaths and gutters, past stoa, or stores, the agora, the bema or judgment seat where another Roman governor refused to pass judgment on religious matters and left Paul's fate to the people. We saw the odeion, the Temple of Apollo and the Temple of Octavia. We learned that it was here- of course - that the Corinthian column was born and we learned why the statues had removable heads.....to recycle the torsoes. Cunning people, the Corinthians!
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