On our fourth full day in Greece, we traveled to Corinth which is a city on the coast of Greece in the Peloponnese. [Check your maps!] Before going to the ruins of ancient Corinth, we traveled to the Corinth Canal which was constructed in the same era as the Panama Canal. The canal is a sight to behold. It is broad enough to allow a luxury cruise ship to pass through it. It is difficult to imagine that centuries ago, the Romans had an interest in constructing such a canal by slave labor.
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| And the Romans thought they could dig all of this by hand! The boat you see passing through the canal is a fairly large cargo vessel. |
After our very brief "tourist" visit to the canal, we traveled a short distance to Acrocorinth. What is the relationship between Acrocorinth and Corinth? An interesting question! What I learned during our trip that the highest point of a city is referred to as "acro" and that every city had an "acropolis" which literally means the highest point (acro) of the city (polis). We ordinarily associate the name acropolis only with Athens, but, in fact, most of the ancient cities of Greece had an acropolis. In Corinth, the ancient city was built on the side of a mountain and is referred to as Acrocorinth. Corinth itself is below the mountain side at the edge of the sea. After our visit to the ruins of Acrocorinth, we toured the ruins of ancient Corinth. The photos of both locations follow...
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| View of modern Corinth from Acrocorinth. |
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| A section of the ruins of Acrocorinth. |
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| View from Acrocorinth looking away from the sea. |
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| Our tour bus is in the distance. This gives you an idea of the distance we had to climb by foot to get to the ruins. |
We proceeded from Acrocorinth to the ruins of ancient Corinth. I will end this posting with photos from the museum at the ruins of ancient Corinth. In the next posting, Part 2, I will attach photos of the ruins of ancient Corinth and Cenchreae. Stay tuned....
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| A view of Acrocorinth covered in mist (taken from the ruins of ancient Corinth at the foot of the mountain, closer to the sea). |
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| Interior courtyard of the museum. |
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| One side of a four sided ceremonial sarcophagus (photos of the other sides follow). |
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| Take note of the paint that is evident in the hair. Painted marble statues and buildings was quite common, as you will see more vividly in the next photo which show the original paint. |
Photos of the ruins of ancient Corinth will be in Part 2. Here is a taste of what is to come...
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