Friday, June 24, 2011

Corinth

 
There isn't very much at Corinth worth seeing. The Romans wiped this place clean in 146 BC and they did a pretty thorough job of it. The city was rebuilt later but I believe it was in a different location since I didn't see any Roman or Byzantine remains here. Certainly by the time of the fourth crusade the Acrocorinth (the big cliffs there in the background) was the main stronghold in the area.

The Acrocorinth is visible for miles around and, although we didn't get a good photo from the top, the view is extraordinary. Even when just driving by on the expressway it is quite imposing.

Corinth has always been important since it controlled the only means of access from the Peloponnese to Northern Greece. The Isthmus of Corinth is a thin stretch of land (about 4 miles wide) which is all that prevents the Peloponnese from being an island. Since antiquity there have been proposals to cut a canal through the isthmus (most famously Periander and Nero) but it was only carried through in the 19th century. Until then Corinth controlled land access. If travelers wanted to get to the other side they had to go around the Peloponnese or else land and cart their ship over. Needless to say any armies passing through were at the mercy of Corinthian forces. This made them very powerful during the Peloponnesian War as both sides fought for control of the city.

This is the best I could get on the way up. Had we gone into the castle we might have had a better one but we had to get to Athens and we were running out of time. This is looking in the direction of Corinth. The Isthmus is just to the right of the shot but is surprisingly hard to locate. You may be able to see for miles but the angle is still too low to tell where land ends and the sea begins.

These are the walls of the Acrocorinth. This is a pretty impressive fortress and was always one of the key strongholds in lower Greece. A lot of these fortifications were built by the crusader armies giving it a somewhat similar look to the smaller surviving walls at Mystra. This fortress was one of the last ones to fall to the Ottomans after a pretty impressive siege.


The streets around Corinth are basically built for tourists. There are a few houses and such near by but most of the buildings are centered around catering to visitors.

We didn't actually pay to go into Corinth since we could see so much of it from outside the gates. There is little here to attract attention.

This city must have been pretty impressive in its heyday. With the Acrocorinth looking out over it and the bays on either side it would be hard to find a better strategic site in Greece.

This was the theatre. Its located just to the west of the main city area. Judging from the way this place is laid out there was probably a major road passing through here.

On the other side of the probable road there was this. I took a photo of the sign at the time, but it came out too blurry to read. I believe it was a baths complex. There is very little left.


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37°53'32.46"N, 22°52'35.50"E

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