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Korinthos

The Korinth Canal joined the Saronic Gulf with the Korinthian Gulf in 1893. However it had been thought of as early as 600 BC, by Periander. Since in those days the technology was not advanced, ships were rolled from one gulf to the other on specially designed 'rollers.' The Canal has a length of about 6.2 km (about 4 miles), and the width is about 25 meters (about 70 feet). Height from sea level reaches about 80 meters (about 240 feet) at places.

Sailing in the gulf of Corinth is quite unique. With the high mountains on both sides or a relatively narrow gulf, sailing here sometimes resembles sailing on a highland lake. There are very few tourists here, but on the other hand there are more dolphins than anywhere else in Greece. 2 miles before the canal of Korinth is the famous casino of Loutraki.

Nemea is a lovely old town famous for two things - its extensive archaeological site and its wines. Many a “Retsina” come from Nemea, as the sign on the bottle says! Archaeological artifacts include standing columns, the temple of Dias (aka Zeus), and many other architectural delights. The athletic games of Nemea take place here every two years. In the nearby hills, is the Lion cave, so called because it is there that Hercules made the mistake of killing it.

The Farmaka mountain is so called, because of the many botanical herbs that grow on it (Farmako translates to medicine). Also found near the village is the monastery of the Virgin Mary of Farmaka. Stymafalia lake, west of Korinth which in ancient times, through an ingenious method, was built by Hadrian, and fed water to Ancient Korinth, a distance of more than 65 km (40 miles). Parts of the ancient aqua ducts are still visible today.

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