The photos are intriguing.
The four-mile-long Corinth Canal through Greece connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea.
Only 70 ft. wide at sea level, the canal expands to a width of 81 ft. at top of its 300 ft. high rock walls.
Only ships with a width of 58 ft. or less can transit the Corinth Canal.
Although the canal saves the 430-mile journey around the Peloponnese, it is too narrow for modern ocean freighters.
Since it separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, the creation of the Corinth Canal made the former Peloponnese peninsula into an island.
A railway line, a road and a motorway all cross the Corinth Canal.
In 1988, a sea-level submersible bridge was installed at each end of the canal, by the eastern harbor of Isthmia and the western harbor of Poseidonia.
While the Corinth Canal was not completed until 1893, rulers during classical Greek times dreamed of digging a cutting through the Isthmus.
As he worked to build Corinth into one of the major trading centers of Ancient Greece, tyrant Periander first attempted to dig a canal during the 7th century BC. When the canal project proved difficult, Periander switched effort to a less expensive overland portage road, named the Diolkos. With this stone carriageway, ships could be towed across the Isthmus of Corinth, and tolls could be collected from goods entering Corinth’s port.
In 67 AD, Roman Emperor Nero attempted to construct the canal, personally breaking the ground with a pick axe and removing the first soil. The Roman workforce, consisting of 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war, began digging 130–160 ft. wide trenches from both sides, while a third group at the ridge drilled deep shafts to probe the quality of the rock.
Although the effort was abandoned after Nero’s death, a memorial of the attempt left by Nero’s workers can still be seen today in the canal cutting.
While considered over the years, construction on the canal did not start again until 1881. The Corinth Canal was finally completed and inaugurated in 1893.
After its opening, the Corinth Canal failed to attract the expected ship traffic for multiple reasons:
- The canal is tough to navigate because it’s narrow, with frequent high winds and strong currents.
- The canal’s high rock walls were subject to landslides; the canal was closed multiple times between 1893 and 1940 for work to stabilize its walls.
The canal was damaged during World War II due to its strategic importance. In 1944, as German forces retreated from Greece, they used explosives in “scorched earth” operations to put the canal out of action and to hinder repair work.
During November of 1947, the United States Army Corps of Engineers began work to clear the canal. It was re-opened it for shallow-draft traffic by July, 1948, and for all ship traffic by September of the same year.
Today approximately 11,000 ships transit the Corinth Canal each year, mostly tourist ships and smaller cruise ships.
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Have you sailed through the Corinth Canal?
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