ANCIENT CORINTH

The site of Ancient Corinth has been occupied since Neolithic times due to its ideal location on high ground and close to the sea. Corinth passed smoothly from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age, but was destroyed for an unknown reason at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. The city reached its peak during the reign of the tyrant Kypselos and his son Periander. The city prospered and grew rich during its numerous contacts with the East, as shown by the motifs that decorate the vases from this period. In 582 B.C. are inaugurated the Isthmic games in the honor of the god Poseidon. In 480, the tyranny is overthrown and the aristocracy takes the power with the same commercial and political success. The Medieval wars and the Athenian domination began to undermine the supremacy of the city. The victories of Sparta further weakened the political influence of Corinth, while the Corinthian war which followed (395-387 BC) finished to exhaust it. Corinth only regained its status as a major commercial and political center during the Macedonian period, during which it became the seat of the Achaean League in 200 BC. This wealth did not leave the Romans indifferent, and the armies of the emperor Mummius razed the city, pillaging its wealth and selling its inhabitants as slaves. For a century, the city was a deserted field of ruins. Only under Julius Caesar did the city begin to be repopulated: it attracted descendants of exiled Corinthians and many Jews and became a Roman political center. It was at this time that the city was visited by St. Paul (see "The Famous Letters"). Under Justinian, the city suffered its first earthquake and the emperor Hadrian built an aqueduct that fed the city from the distant springs of Stymphalia. Herod Atticus also endowed the city with numerous monuments. In 267 AD, the Heruli invaded Corinth, which suffered another earthquake in 375. Again, the city knows the invasions of Barbarians, this time they are the Goths of Alaric. An umpteenth earthquake weakened the city which, in 1210, was occupied by pirates. From 1358 to 1395, Corinth will be under Florentine occupation, and will fall in the lap of the Turks, then of the Venetians, until 1822

.The visit starts with the archaeological museum of the site

On leaving the museum, the visit of the site begins. A set of stores remind us that the agora was both the political and economic center of the city. In front of you, you can see the foundations of a multitude of small temples dedicated to many Greek gods, such as Aphrodite, Apollo, Poseidon and the demi-god Heracles. Going on your left, you quickly arrive at the temple of Apollo which dominates the whole site from its promontory. The monument is of Doric style, with 6 columns in front and 15 on the sides. These monolithic (in one block) and massive columns make us think that the temple must have been built in the 6th century BC. A little north of the temple, the foundations of another older temple, from the seventh century, were discovered, as well as a set of Roman stores that formed a square building surrounding an open courtyard and surrounded by a columned peristyle. Take the steps down to the huge Greek agora. In the 4th century B.C., it already had the dimensions it has today. It is framed, on the north and on the south, by a row of stores, and especially by the huge south portico which supported 74 Doric columns in front and 34 Ionic columns inside. If you walk along the esplanade of the portico, you will see the foundations of stores and especially of taverns where the inhabitants of the city could relax. In the center of this row of buildings, the Roman bouleutêrion, which can be recognized by its more or less circular shape. It was the seat of the Council of the Roman Senate. Even further south of the portico, the southern basilica dates from the first century AD. Retracing your steps, you will notice that the southern portico was separated from the agora by a row of buildings which must have been stores facing north. In the middle of this row was the bêma. It is from this terrace that Saint Paul defended the Christian religion and that the Roman politicians harangued the crowd. Opposite the southern portico, that is to say in the north-west of the agora, extends a new row of 15 stores. To the right of this row opens the road which led to the port of the city: Lechaion. This road led to the agora under a monumental propylon. By taking this road, you will discover several monuments.
On your right, with your back to the agora, is the beautiful Pirene fountain. We owe to Herod Atticus the principal installations of the monument in spite of the successive touches brought at the time Byzantine. Inside the monument, admire the 6 basins which gave access to 4 other basins which fed the Pirene source (on the Acrocorinth). Going up above the foundations of the fountain, you will see the central reservoir and the four restored basins. On your right, going down the road to Lechaion: the peribolus of Apollo surrounded by the remains of an Ionic colonnade, public latrines dating from the Roman period and finally the remains of Roman baths. Going up the road towards the agora, on your right, the remains of the basilica known as of North. It opened on the agora by a rectangular courtyard and a facade decorated with monumental statues of barbarian prisoners (two are still visible in the museum) which earned it its name of "facade of the Captives". In front of it, the entrance to the underground passage that leads to the sacred fountain (protected by a gate); its water was reserved for worship. All you have to do is retrace your steps across the agora towards the museum. The last curiosity is the Glauké fountain, cut in the rock which seems to come out of the ground like an enormous stone cube. The water was collected at the foot of the Acrocorinth and brought to the fountain by an aqueduct. The fountain owes its name to the legend reported by Pausanias, according to which the daughter of king Creon and second wife of Jason, Glauke, threw herself into this fountain because of the pain caused by the poisoned dress that Medea, Jason's first wife, had sent her as a wedding gift. On the side of the road at the beginning are the last two monuments of the site. The Odeon, with a capacity of 3,000 people, is carved into the natural slope of the hill. It dates from the end of the first century AD and was restored by Herod Atticus in 175. The second monument is the theater, which is still overgrown with tall grass today. To the east of the theater remain some fragments of a wall which must have been part of the temple dedicated to Athena. At 300 m north of the theater, the sanctuary of Asclepius and the fountain of Lerna.