Corinth is an ancient Greek city in Peloponnese region and we came to look at its canal. The canal cuts the Greece mainland from Peloponnesian peninsula making the latter an island and saving a 700 km journey around the Peloponnese. The canal is 6,4 km long and connects the Gulf of Corinth and Saronic Gulf. It is 63 meters high with 80° angle plus 8 m deep under water, 24,6 meters wide at sea level and 21,3 m at the bottom. There are 2 bridges, one each end of the canal, which submerge when a boat is coming and the traffic resumes. First time in Greece with my friends Piia & Liisa, we saw jellyfishes on the bridge when it came out of the water. Besides those 2 bridges they have 5 more - 2 road, 2 railway and 1 walking bridge, on the last one we went to check the bridge.
The canal is narrow and most modern ships are too large to pass it. The record for the largest ship which has passed the Corinth canal was MS Braemar in October 2019 with the length of 195 m, beam (width) 22,5 m and draught 5,4 m. The big ferries are to be towed by tugs and one-way, for obvious reasons. Nowadays, the canal is mostly being used by tourist ships - around 11 000 ships travel through the waterway annually.
The first ruler who thought about making the Corinth canal was the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC. He although abandoned the idea for cheaper and simpler way. A overland portage road, called Diolkos or stone carriageway where ships are towed on land from one side to the other (close to where the canal is now).
There had been many others rulers after who thought about making it but abandoned the idea or died. The one who actually attempted to construct it was the emperor Nero who also was the one to made the first cut in the ground at Corinth. The initial digging workforce consisted of 6000 jewish war prisoners who dug 40-50 m trenches from both sides. The project was abandoned shortly after as Nero died. The canal was dug about a tenth of the total distance, around 700 m across the potential canal.
The construction of the modern times started after Greece gain independence back from the Ottoman Empire. One Greek statesman asked for the estimate cost of the construction of the canal. The idea was abandoned after it turned out the cost would be 40 million gold francs and that was way too much for a newly independent country. The construction started finally in 1882 after figuring out how to get funded and was finished in 1893, taking 11 years to build it.
The use of the canal is not that high as it had predicted. The canal is narrow, there is a lot of wind because of the high walls and different times in the 2 gulfs causing strong tidal currents in the canal were the reasons why many ship companies did not want to use the canal. The bigger ships are also too wide to cross the canal. The traffic was expected to be around 4 million annually, but in 1906 it was only half a million. By 1913 it went to 1,5 and down again after the WW I.
The material which the canal is cut through is limestone and it have been unstable from the start. The canal was formally opened in July 1893 but wasn't opened for usage until November, because of the landslides. The passing ships created more landslides with its waves undermining the walls. In many times the canal has been closed for maintenance, stabilizing the walls and clearing out the material which had fallen to the water. During the WW II, the canal was blocked due to bridges being destroyed and landfalls. Everything possible (locomotives, bridge wreckage) were dumped into the canal so it would not be possible to use it. In 1948 it was opened again for shallow-draft boats and the following year for all traffic.
It was very bright, that's why the faces. Click next for the previous picture for more.
When we were done we drove to see Mycenae (next post), city of Nafplio where we just went to eat, drove up to Fortress of Palamidi and then towards the Ancient Theather of the Asklepieion at Epidaurus. That was closed by that time when we arrived, it was already dark so we would not see so much and it had started to rain as well. We peeked outside through the gates and back to the car.
