Chasing The Odyssey- Day 2, The Corinth Canal

On this second day of the trip, we headed out of Athens by bus bound for the Peloponnese.  Our first stop was the Corinth Canal, a cool piece of engineering that cuts out a 430+ mile journey around the Peloponnese landmass, but only smaller vessels can make the trip through the Canal due to width and depth restrictions.

Here’s history and facts on the Canal.  I was going to cut and paste out of Wikipedia, but I consider that cheating, so I’ll summarize in my own words the best I can:

Emperors and Kings dreamed about constructing a canal across this narrow piece of land for ages, but the original build on the canal was only really started in 67 AD by Roman Emperor Nero himself…until he was killed.  Then you skip and jump through history until just after the Suez Canal was opened…and Greece starts construction again in 1882 and the canal was finally completed in 1893.  Along the way are a series of bankruptcies but eventually the canal is finished…but not opened.  When the canal did eventually open, it was prone to closure due to unstable walls and falling dirt, closing a variety of times.  

WWII didn’t help the canal as it became a target to fight over between German and Allied forces.  The main bridge was heavily defended until German troops captured it….but then it was blown up.  History isn’t able to tell us who blew it up or how….there’s several great stories that folks tell about the bridge.  

Modern use of the canal is limited.  We’ve literally built most ships too big to get through the canal safely.  The canal is 26 feet deep, 81 feet wide at the surface and 70 feet wide at the bottom and the walls go up as high as 300 feet tall.  But, at just 81 feet wide at water level, that’s just not enough room for most modern ships to pass through or safely navigate, so the canal is now thought of mostly as a tourist attraction. 

So we arrived at a small cafe/bus stop that was a combination coffee shop and souvenir stand for what we thought was a potty and refreshment break.  After grabbing cold drinks, small souvenirs or coffee we expected to get back on the bus and take off again, but our guide herded us along a busy road….suddenly popping out at a lookout over the….Corinth Canal.  I’ve always wanted to go see this modern marvel, so I was thrilled to be there, but it was a bit anti-climactic.

After about 10 minutes looking over the canal and taking pictures, we were back on the bus, traveling into the Peloponnese to see more iconic ruins on this day.

I’ve decided to break the Greek trip up into significant sites we went to see each day, writing and thinking about each of those sites individually so I can give each of them more of a voice as I write.  I’ll also tell the stories about our trip, but I’ll be able to do that with more clarity if I discuss each of the significant sites on their own.

Here’s the other articles I’ve published so far about this trip:

Overview: Chasing The Odyssey, An American Family Visits Greece

PS:  You may have noticed I missed my Monday post last week….cause we were out exploring the Pacific Northwest….specifically Anacortes, La Conner and Oak Harbor areas.  I’ll get to all that, eventually.