Corinthian Matters

Category: Sites, Canal

  • SUPing the Corinth Canal

    This clip on the “newest sport of SUP” was the most interesting new canal water sport video to appear in my Google Alerts this week.  (I get more than one might expect).  It must have been Strabo who said “The width of the Isthmus at the “Diolkos,” where the people paddle from one sea to the other, is…

  • The Diolkos Petition

    It’s not hard to construct narratives of decline for the paved trans-Isthmus diolkos road.  One only has to compare the monument unearthed by N. Verdelis 50 years ago with modern photos of a road sliding into the canal.  Indeed, Sophia Loverdou has used the tools of social media to launch a “Save the Diolkos” campaign. …

  • Cruising the Canal, Damaging the Diolkos

    One of the consequences of spending a summer morning talking with Sophia Loverdou was seeing the diolkos in a whole new light.  I had contacted Sophia following the recommendation of a reviewer (on a forthcoming diolkos article) that a woman had launched a crusade to save the diolkos of Corinth.  I had seen Sophia’s name…

  • A Cruise Ship in the Corinth Canal

    In early June I had the chance to visit the Corinth Canal with Sophia Loverdou, the woman who has launched a campaign to save the ancient diolkos (more on that campaign later in the week).  As I wrote in this post in late June, she and I toured the part of the diolkos inside Military…

  • More Extreme Sports at the Isthmus

    There is something fitting about staging extreme sports at the Isthmus today.  Perhaps it has something to do with ancient attempts to canalize the Isthmus, or drag ships over it, or build big fortification walls across it—all heroic and incredible feats.  Or perhaps it has something to do with the associations with the Pan-Hellenic festival…

  • A Book about the Diolkos

    I first discovered Apostolos Papafotiou’s Ο δίολκος στον ισθμό της Κορίνθου (=”The Diolkos on the Isthmus of Corinth”), Corinth 2007 (ISBN 960-87108-9-8), while browsing Corinthian history books at bookstore in New Corinth.  Because I don’t like to pay over $100 for a book, I delayed until the following summer to convince myself that it was…

  • Bungee into the Abyss

    If it looks unsafe, it probably is.  That’s what I have often thought while watching extreme sport types jump 80 meters head first into the Corinth Canal.  For 60 Euro you can pay Zulu Bungy to jump from the old national road bridge and hang suspended above the canal for a couple of minutes.  It…

  • Whirlwind on the Isthmus

    My four days in the Corinthia passed much too quickly for my liking. Day 1: Arrive at the Isthmus and introduce students to the delicious fastfood Goody’s chain; view the canal from the old national highway bridge; race to the top of Acrocorinth before the site closed (now 3 PM, no longer 7); visit Kenchreai…