CANAL AND ISTHMUS OF CORINTH
Don't miss the Canal and Isthmus of Corinth, a well-known site in all history books.
Opened in 1893, the canal is a narrow, straight trench 6.3 km long with smooth, vertical walls. Two white walls rise 80 m high, with a distance of only 22 m. When you go from Corinth to Loutraki, the small road passes by the entrance of the canal, which is the most appropriate place to see this site well known in all history books. If you arrive at the moment of the passage of a boat, the bridge will rise and you will have to wait quietly, like everyone else, until it has passed. The image is then worth a photograph, the canal in all its length in the viewfinder. Since the piercing of this isthmus, very narrow, between 1881 and 1893, the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf communicate. The project, on paper, had already existed for a long time. A large paved road had already been built in the 6th century BC and ships were transported between the two gulfs by means of carts. In 67 B.C., Nero sent a battalion of 6,000 Jewish prisoners to begin the work, but it took another 17 centuries. The French were involved at the beginning of the work, on May1, 1882, but it was a Greek company that completed this gigantic work: 6,500 m long, 23.50 m wide. Today, one can see the remains of the large paved road by taking the direction of Loutraki from Corinth and by passing on the removable bridge.