Grove Koger
July 25 is the anniversary of the completion of the Corinth Canal, a narrow waterway cut through the four-mile-wide Isthmus of Corinth and running from the Ionian Sea on the west to the Saronic Gulf on the east.
The idea of digging such a canal is an ancient one, as the isthmus, which connects the large Peloponnese peninsula with mainland Greece, is an obstacle to safe and easy travel between mainland Greece’s west and east coasts. However, the difficulties and expense involved in such an undertaking led instead to the construction in the 6th century BCE of a cobblestone road, the Diolkos, over which ships could be dragged. Teams of men were able to winch ships up a slip, or ramp, at one end of the road, load it onto a wheeled undercarriage, drag it across the narrow isthmus, and then reverse the process in order to slide it into the water at the other end.
The Diolkos remained in use well into the 1st century CE, and a few fragments are still visible today.
Subsequently, several Roman emperors broached the idea of an actual canal, but it was only in 1830, a few years after mainland Greece won its independence from the Ottoman Empire, that the plan was taken up. However, the anticipated cost proved to be too high. The project was revived again forty years later, but it was only in 1881 that a French concern, the Société Internationale du Canal Maritime de Corinthe, won a concession to dig and operate the canal. The company actually began work in 1882, but within a few years it went bankrupt. Eventually a Greek company won the concession and finally, to great fanfare. completed the project on July 25, 1893.
My first wife and I sailed through the 4-mile canal one bright morning in the 1970s on a Turkish Maritime Lines ship. We were pulled—very, very slowly—by a tug, so we had ample time to enjoy the experience. The canal is only 80 or so feet wide, and its limestone walls rise precipitously on each side, so the experience was a memorable one. More recently, in 2011, Maggie and I got quick glimpses down its 300-foot walls in 2011 on our visit to Nafplio, modern Greece’s first capital.
The photograph at the top of today’s post was taken by MannyvonKannen (pixabay.com) and is reproduced courtesy of Needpix.com, while the photograph of the Diolkos was taken by Dan Diffendale and is reproduced courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. The painting of the inauguration of the canal is by Konstantinos Volanakis, and the postcard, which I believe dates from the 1920s, is from my collection.
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