Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
En route to Corinth, the railroad skirts the Aegean Sea and crosses the Isthmian
Canal. Watch for the canal when the train is about 1 hour out of Athens. The center
of the canal runs 285 feet deep through solid rock. The railroad bridge passes 200
feet above the level of the water for a spectacular view.
Greek and Roman rulers (the infamous Nero included) periodically attempted to
breach the isthmus with a canal, but until a French company using modern meth-
ods succeeded between 1882 and 1893, all had failed. The ancients hauled their
small ships across the isthmus on rollers. Vestiges of the portage road are still vis-
ible just after the train crosses the bridge. Watch on the right side of the train for
the best view. Have your camera poised and ready—the train traverses the area
quickly.
The current “new” city of Corinth, moved to its site in 1858 after an earthquake
destroyed “old” Corinth, was leveled by an equally devastating earthquake in 1928.
The site has had its share of earth tremors; ancient scribes record devastation in
A.D. 522 and 551. Called an “undistinguished town,” new Corinth is interesting in
that it represents a community rebuilt on anti-seismic principles of low buildings
that, paradoxically, give it an air of impermanence.
In fear of pirates, old Corinth was built well back from the sea. This strategic po-
sition served the city well. Corinth prospered and became one of the three great
city-states of Greece, along with Athens and Sparta. Things went reasonably well
until Corinth led the Achaean League against the Romans in 146 B.C. The Romans
won the ball game and, a la Carthage (as was the custom in those days), laid
waste to Corinth. After the city withstood a hundred years of total desolation, Julius
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