One of the important objects for inspection in my plans for Greece was the Corinthian Canal. Before the trip I saw pictures of the canal and I was impressed by the steep walls, a deep slit in the mountain, not the bottom of which water can be seen. I decided - it is necessary to look at this miracle.

There are several interesting facts that make the Corinthian channel special:

The result of efforts and large-scale works was an object that more impresses tourists, rather than benefits Greece. But this has its own benefit: the famous channel serves to attract travelers to the Peloponnese;

The Corinthian Canal is the rare case when a 2000-year long-term construction was completed;

In its length, the canal is considered the shortest shipping canal in Europe, and the width is the narrowest in the world;

Having arrived here, you can see at once two seas: the Ionian and the Aegean;

The Corinthian Isthmus, through which the canal was built, made the Peloponnese a peninsula. But after the completion of the works the Peloponnese artificially turned into an island.

The Corinthian Canal

And now, a good high-speed road from Athens leads to the Peloponnese and I'm thinking about how not to miss, not to slip through the canal! On the map, I see that next to the big road there is a small one and there is another bridge. That's where I decided to go, because, most likely, on a large bridge, most likely, it will not be convenient to inspect the channel and it will be difficult to make photos.

I did not understand the real scale of the channel from photographs on the Internet. And now, I can already see the lapel on the secondary road and ... after a few seconds, I have already captured the spirit. An abyss opened below me and a blue channel opened somewhere at the bottom. The length of the bridge across the canal is only 25 meters. Very narrow!

After driving 50 meters after the bridge, we parked and went on foot to the bridge, which would take a look at the canal.

The length of the canal was 6 km, the depth - about 8 m, and the height of the walls reaches 76 m. The width of the Corinthian canal varies from 21 to 25 m in different sections.

Of course, today it is rather a tourist object, although cargo ships are passing through it, but, rather, of local importance.

In general, because of such a small width of the canal, reverse motion is realized on it, and ships are tug-boats that would quietly go and not create waves. The fact is that waves are blurring the shores and this can cause an appeal.

But when you look at these walls, it seems that they are indestructible.

And once, during the times of ancient Greece, through this narrow six-kilometer canal, the ships dragged directly over the stones. What would have been easier - the stones were greased with grease.

The necessity of the canal was clear even then, in the 7th century BC, even the construction of the canal was started. But, it did not happen ... because of fears that the flooding of lands will occur because of the discrepancy between the levels of the Aegean and Ionian seas. But from time to time, attempts to dig a channel from time to time were repeated. Both Julius Caesar and Caligula made plans for the construction of the canal, and Nero even started construction, but again the external causes and construction did not end. And so, from time to time, the idea of ​​building a canal was returning, but it was realized only in 1893.

During the Second World War, the canal was blown up and heavily flooded. And cleared only by 1947-1948. We drove through the bridge over the canal by car, and examined it from above. But you can go to the city of Corinth and on the waterfront you will definitely be offered a ride along the canal on a boat. We missed this opportunity, but if it happens, I'll be back in those places - I'll definitely be able to get through.