Mediterranean — 2010

Ancient Corinth

Today we are in the cruise ship and ferry port of Piraeus, Greece, which is one of three ports serving the Athens area.  The others in our Grant Park group went on shore excursions that took them to the Acropolis, but as we were there in 2006, we went on a less crowded excursion to Ancient Corinth and the Canal.  We drove through some of Piraeus (pop.  600,000) and Athens (pop.  4 million) for about an hour and 20 minutes before reaching the canal.  The canal was built to provide ships a short cut that saved 200 nautical miles as they didn’t have to go around the Peloponnesian peninsula (which was an island until the sea changed) to reach Athens.  The canal was first desired by Alexander the Great, then Nero, who actually brought 6,000 slaves with shovels to dig the canal, but they didn’t succeed.  It was finally built between 1882-1893 by Ferdinand de Lesseps, the same man who built the Suez Canal and began construction of the Panama Canal.  The Corinth Canal is only 3.7 miles long and 63 feet wide.  It is too narrow to accommodate the large ships used today.  The canal links the Ionian Sea to the west and the Aegean Sea to the east.  Before the canal was completed, they would put ships on wheels and traverse a marble road that connected the two bodies of water.  From the canal we went on a short bus ride to Ancient Corinth.  The Apostle Paul preached here, and was interrogated for the first time on his trip through Greece at the Bema, or synagogue.  Paul returned to Ephesus and wrote letters to the Corinthians.  He also wrote to others in Greece that he had visited including the Thessalonians and Phillipians.  He visited Athens but never wrote to the Athenians.  The ruins are a mixture of Greek and Roman buildings.  The Romans destroyed and built over the Greek city, but some of the original marble remains in the roads and buildings.  The museum contained some headless statues, and our guide explained that the Romans used the body of statues already sculpted and just had their heads added.  Our guide was the best we’ve had so far.  Tonight we played Team Trivia with Lynn from Australia, and she was the reason we won (finally!).  Barbara also had some success in the casino tonight.

© Jay 2020