THE CANAL OF CORINTH, GREECE

We move from the study of the Philippians to the study of the Corinthians. These were big city folks. They lived in an area spectacular in beauty. St. Paul must have been in awe of the natural beauty, and wished his new churches had that kind of beauty on the inside!

I mentioned briefly in class the Corinthian Canal. Here is more information on it:

The Corinth Canal constitutes a junction of international sea communications and serves ships of all nationalities. It provides the shortest and safest sea - Lane for ships coming from sea ports of the Ionian sea, the Adriatic, Southern Italy, and those passing through to eastern Mediterranean ports and on the BIack Sea and vice versa.

Since ancient times, a number of spirited souls entertained thoughts of constructing a canal through the Isthmus in spite of the insurmountable technical problems such.

NonetheIess, the record of repeated attempts in this direction goes shows that human ingenuity and courage were not good enough.

Ancient writers relate that, in 602 B.C., Periander, Tyrant of Corinth and one of the Seven Sages of Antiquity, was the first man to seriously consider the possibiiity of opening a canal through the Isthmus. Periander is said to have given up on his plans fearing the wrath of the gods.

Pythia, the priestess of the Delphic Oracle, warned him not to proceed . It is possible that this negative oracle was provoked by the priests in temple, who were concerned about not relinquishing their status of prominence or the influx of gifts and dedications by god-fearing merchants and seafarers who portaged through Corinth.

In 307 B.C., about three centuries after Periander, Demetrios Poliorketes made up his mind to cut a naval passage through the Isthmus. He actually began excavations before he has talked out of continuing with it by Egyptian engineers, who predicted that the different sea levels between the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulfs would inundate Aegina and nearly islands with the sea!

In Roman times, Julius Caesar (44 B.C.) . and Caligula in 37 Â.D. again courted with the idea. In 66 Á.D., Nero reconsidered earlier plans and a year later, he set teams of war prisoners from the Aegan islands and six thousand Jewish slaves to work on the canal.

They dug a ditch 3300 meters in length and 40 meters wide, before Nero had to rush back to Rome to queil the Galva mutiny. Once there, Nero was arrested on charges of treason and was sentenced to death in 68 Á.D.

The unfinished canaI feil to oblivion and was overtaken by tales of superstition and supernatural lore.

The next historic personality to be associated with the canal of Corinth was Herod of Atticus. He tried, as also did the Byzantines - but to no avail.

The Venetians were next in line. They commenced digging from the shore on the Corinthian Gulf but the enormity of the task made them give up overnight.

Thus one attempt after another failed to reverse the inscrutable rock. Most thought the Isthmus was sealed forever.

At long last, the Corinth Canal appeared within grasp. Yet there were still a number of obstacles to overcome. In the 1700's, Greece again having having independence (1830), after nearly four hundred years of Ottoman rule, did not have the material resources and financial strength to undertake such a costly task.

Capodistrias, governor of the state, commissioned a special study on the canal project. The conclusions of that study made Capodistrias abandon further consideration.

Subsequent studies and proposals submitted to the government were likewise evaluated as unrealistic and unrealizable and met with the same fate.

Finally, work on another seemingly impossible canal caused people to take another look at the Corinth situation. The Suez Canal opened its gates to naval traffic in 1869.

In view of that event, in November 1869 the Greek government enacted a law entitled "Opening of the Isthmos of Corinth". Following that legislation, they proceeded to assign the project to French contractors.

Unfortunately, the French contract remained only an agreement on paper. Then, Twelve years later, in 1881 , another contractor, a Hungarian established "The International Company of the Canal of Corinth" and took over the project.

Construction began on April 23, 1882.


King George I of Greece was present at the official ground breaking. It is quite surprising (and a historic irony) that modern engineering plans followed almost to the point the plans Nero himself has used long ago! In other words, the 6300 meters of canal length which Nero had mapped out still proved to be the most feasible economic alternative.

The Corinth Canal was completed in 1893! By then, the initial contractor was bankrupt. He was replaced by a Greek company, which finished the work.


It was the vindication of a dream first conceived some 2500 years ago.

Now, the Canal cuts the Isthmus of Corinth in a straight. Twelve million cubic meters of earth had to be removed to cut out the entire passage. The rock formations in the flanks of the Corinth Canal are not uniform throughout.

There are several geologic fissures which run in east -west direction at a vertical angle to the canal axis. These geologic features were responsible for a number of major landslides into the Canal. Because of these, the Canal often had to be closed for repairs.

In fact, from its beginning until 1940, the Canal had to be closed to traffic for a total of 4 years. The most serious such incident took place in 1923, when the canal remained closed to traffic for 2 years when rocks and earth fell in.

Another major interruption of operation occured in 1944, when the retreating German Army set explosives to the Canal and caused 60000 cubic meters of earth to cave in. To make repairs even more difficult, the Germans also sunk railroad cars in it. It took 5 years to clear the canal for traffic.


Now the Corinth Canal is also a great tourist attractions. Vacationers converge here to admire not only the beauty of rock and sea, but also the work of many generations.