The Corinth Canal of Greece

ip_lepat · Post time 30-9-2015 11:12 AM

As a land rich with mythical and historical vestiges, it isnot rare to find renowned and legendary sites, landmarks, and architecturalstructures in Greece. The Corinth Canal is one of them.

Since its opening, the Corinth Canal has been proving itselfas a labor- and time-effective route for an uncountable number of sea-goingvessels. Being the connecting link between the Gulf of Corinth and the SaronicGulf and the separator of Peloponnese from mainland Greece, the canal providesa short-cut nautical route for the vessels sailing from Athens and the port ofPiraeus – Greece’s most important and largest port – to the west.

The Greeks dreamed of digging a waterway that connects thecontinental Greece with Peloponnese more than 2,000 years ago. The secondtyrant of Corinth (602 BCE), Periander, first envisioned the Corinth Canal.However, such a huge project was beyond the technical capacities of that age,leading Periander to take another project named the diolkós. It was astone-road that was used for transferring ships from one sea to the otherthrough wheeled platforms.

Macedonian king Dimitrios Poliorkitis (300 BCE) was thesecond person who attempted to dig the canal. However, his engineers told himthat it would make the more northerly Adriatic to flood the more southernAegean, which was a wrong theory nevertheless. Their religious belief was alsoan obstacle according to which Poseidon, the god of the sea, was not in favorof connecting the Aegean with the Adriatic. Roman Emperor Nero (67 CE) was thenext ruler to make a serious attempt but he was murdered before the project wascompleted.

Capodistrias (1830), Greece’s first governor after theliberation from the Ottoman Turks, was the first modern ruler who tried tocomplete the project but filed because of the budget shortage. Finally, theGreek government appointed a private company named Austrian General Etiene Tyrrin 1869 to construct the canal. The work started on March 29, 1882, but stoppedbecause of insufficient funds. Another company named Andreas Syggros resumedthe work in 1890. The canal was opened for regular use on October 28, 1893.

Finished in 1893, the Corinth Canal is quite similar to thePanama Canal but on a much smaller scale. With 3.9-mile or 6.3-km length and26-foot or 8-m water depth, the canal makes the Peloponnese Peninsula anisland. The width of the canal can vary from 69-foot or 21-m minimum at thebottom and 82-foot or 25-m maximum at the surface of the water. It saves thelabor of circumnavigating the Peloponnese, which cuts down nearly 185 nauticalmiles from the journey, while sailing between the Aegean and Adriatic.

The canal is not wide enough for the modern oceanfreighters. In fact, it is so narrow that it allows a one-way system throughwhich only a single convoy can pass at a time. Currently, only the smallerships and tourist ships use the canal. In fact, sailing through the canal isone of the main attractions to the cruise passengers.