The Corinth Canal (Greek Greek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical ancient Greek literature and the New Testament of: Διώρυγα της Κορίνθου) is a canal Smaller transportation canals can carry barges or narrowboats, while ship canals allow seagoing ships to travel to an inland port , or from one sea or ocean to another (e.g.: Caledonian Canal, Panama Canal) that connects the Gulf of Corinth The Gulf of Corinth or the Corinthian Gulf is a deep inlet of the Ionian Sea separating the Peloponnese from western mainland Greece. It is bounded in the east by the Isthmus of Corinth which includes the shipping route of the Corinth Canal, and in the west by the Strait of Rion, which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the outer Gulf of Patras at with the Saronic Gulf The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. It is the eastern terminus of the Corinth Canal, which cuts across the isthmus. Islands that are lined in the middle of the Gulf are Aegina, Salamis, and Poros along with smaller islands of Patroklou and Vleves. The in the Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος, Egeo Pelagos /eˈʝeo ˈpelaɣos/ ; Turkish: Ege Denizi) is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the southern Balkan and Anatolian peninsulas, i.e., between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey respectively. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word "isthmus" comes from the Ancient Greek word for "neck" and refers to the narrowness of the land. To the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic and separates the Peloponnesian The Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus is a large peninsula (technically an island since the 1893 construction of the Corinth Canal) and region in southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea (Greek: Μωρέας, colloq. peninsula from the Greek Greece (English: /ˈɡriːs/ ; Greek: Ελλάδα, Elláda, IPA: /eˈlaða/ ( listen); Ancient Greek: Ἑλλάς, Hellás, IPA: /helːás/), also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellīnikī́ Dīmokratía, IPA: /eliniˈci ðimokraˈtia/), is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on mainland, thus effectively making the former an island An island or isle (/ˈaɪl/) is any piece of sub-continental land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, cays or keys. An island in a river or lake may be called an eyot, /ˈaɪ.ət/. A grouping of geographically or geologically related islands is called an archipelago. The canal is 6.3 kilometres (3.9 mi) in length and was built between 1881 and 1893.

Contents

History

Remains of Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and commonly known as Nero, was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68. He was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor. He succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death's canal project in 1881

Several rulers in antiquity dreamed of cutting a canal through the Isthmus.[citation needed] The first to propose such an undertaking was the tyrant In classical politics, a tyrant is one who has taken power by his or her own means as opposed to hereditary or constitutional power. This mode of rule is referred to as tyranny (τυραννίς turannis) Periander Periander was the second tyrant of Corinth, Greece in the 7th century BC. He was the son of the first tyrant, Cypselus. Periander succeeded his father in 627 BC in the 7th century BC The Assyrian Empire continued to dominate the near east during this century, exercising formidable power over neighbors like Babylon and Egypt. In the last two decades of the century, however, the empire began to unravel as numerous enemies made alliances and waged war from all sides. The Assyrians finally left the world stage permanently when.[1] He abandoned the project due to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland portage Portage or portaging refers to the practice of carrying watercraft or cargo over land to avoid river obstacles, or between two bodies of water. A place where this carrying occurs is also called a portage; a person doing the carrying is called a porter road, named Diolkos The Diolkos was a paved trackway near Corinth in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth. The short cut allowed ancient vessels to avoid the dangerous circumnavigation of the Peloponnese peninsula. The line "as fast as one from Corinth", penned by the popular comic playwright Aristophanes,.[2][3][4][5][6] According to another theory, Periander feared that a canal would have robbed Corinth Corinth, or Korinth (Greek Κόρινθος, Kórinthos ( [ˈkorinθos] ) is a city in Greece. In antiquity it was a city-state, on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow stretch of land that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece. To the west of the isthmus lies the Gulf of Corinth, to the east lies the Saronic Gulf. Corinth is about 78 of its dominating role as entrepôt An entrepôt is a trading post where merchandise can be imported and exported without paying import duties, often at a profit. This profit is possible because of trade conditions, for example, the reluctance of ships to travel the entire length of a long trading route, and selling to the entrepôt instead. The entrepôt then sells at a higher for goods.[7] Remnants of the Diolkos still exist next to the modern canal.[8][9][10]

The Diadoch The Diadochi were the rival successors of Alexander the Great, and their Wars of the Diadochi followed Alexander's death Demetrius Demetrius I , called Poliorcetes (Greek: Πολιορκητής - "The Besieger"), son of Antigonus I Monophthalmus and Stratonice, was a king of Macedon (294–288 BC). He belonged to the Antigonid dynasty (336–283 BC) planned to construct a canal as a means to improve his communication lines, but dropped the plan after his surveyors, miscalculating the levels of the adjacent seas, feared heavy floods.[7][11]

The historian Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, tells us that the Roman dictator In the Roman Republic, the dictator , was an extraordinary magistrate (magistratus extraordinarius) with the absolute authority to perform tasks beyond the authority of the ordinary magistrate (magistratus ordinarius). The office of dictator was a legal innovation originally named Magister Populi (Master of the People), i.e. Master of the Citizen Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Cæsar/Caesar was a Roman military and political leader. He played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic into the Roman Empire (r. 48 to 44 BC) projected, among other grandiose engineering schemes, a canal through the Isthmus.[12] He was assassinated before he could bring the scheme to fruition.

The Roman Emperor The Roman Emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office: Latin titles such as imperator (from which English emperor ultimately derives), augustus, caesar and princeps were all associated with it. In practice, the emperor was supreme ruler of Rome and supreme commander of the Nero Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus , born Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and commonly known as Nero, was Roman Emperor from 54 to 68. He was the last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Nero was adopted by his great-uncle Claudius to become his heir and successor. He succeeded to the throne in 54 following Claudius' death (r. 54–68 A.D.) launched an excavation, personally breaking the ground with a pickaxe and removing the first basket-load of soil,[13] but the project was abandoned when he died shortly afterwards. The Roman workforce, consisting of 6000 Jewish prisoners of war The first Jewish-Roman War , sometimes called The Great Revolt (Hebrew: המרד הגדול‎, ha-Mered Ha-Gadol), was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews of Iudaea Province against the Roman Empire (the second was the Kitos War in 115–117 AD; the third was Bar Kokhba's revolt, 132–135),[14] started digging 40–50 m (130–160 ft) wide trenches from both sides, while a third group at the ridge drilled deep shafts for probing the quality of the rock (which were reused in 1881 for the same purpose). As the modern canal follows the same course as Nero's, no remains have survived.[15]

The modern attempt at construction began in the 1870s following the successful opening of the Suez Canal The Suez Canal is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Opened in November 1869, it allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa. The northern terminus is Port Said and the southern terminus is Port Tawfik at the city of Suez. Ismailia lies on its west. A French company was hired to build it, but due to financial difficulties, the company ceased work after only the two ends had been dug. Finally, in 1881 the Hungarian architects An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings, and is licensed to practice architecture. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings, István Türr and Béla Gerster, who had also been involved with early surveys for the Panama Canal The Panama Canal began in 1904 and finished 1914 is a 77 km ship canal in Panama that joins the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and is a key conduit for international maritime trade. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in the canal's early days to 14,702 vessels in 2008, measuring a total 309.6 million Panama Canal/Universal, were hired to plan a new canal. A Greek company led by Andreas Syngros (the main contractor being Antonis Matsas) ultimately took over the project and completed it in 1893.

On April 7, 2010, Australian For at least 40,000 years before European settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who belonged to one or more of the roughly 250 language groups. After sporadic visits by fishermen from the immediate north and discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606, Australia's eastern half was claimed by Britain in 177 daredevil Robbie Maddison performed a motocross Motocross is a form of motorcycle sport or all-terrain vehicle racing held on enclosed off road circuits. Motocross is derived from the French, and traces its origins to British scrambling competitions. The name "motocross" is a portmanteau derived from the words "Motorcycle" and "Cross Country". BMX, or bicycle jump over the canal.[16]

Achievement

The Corinth Canal is considered a great technical achievement for its time. It saves the 400-metre (1,300 ft) journey around the Peloponnesus for smaller ships A ship ( Audio (help·info)) is a large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing, entertainment, public safety, and warfare, but since it is only 21 metres (69 ft) wide it is too narrow for modern ocean freighters A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usually specially designed for the task, often being equipped with cranes and other mechanisms. The canal is nowadays mostly used by tourist ships; 11,000 ships per year travel through the waterway. The water in the canal is 8 metres (26 ft) deep. At the maximum, the walls are 52 metres high.

Bridge submerging

At each end of the canal, seashore roads cross using submersible bridges that are lowered to the canal bottom to allow maritime traffic to pass.

Geology

The canal was cut through heavily faulted sedimentary rock in an active seismic zone.[17] Between 1893 and 1940, it was closed a total of four years for maintenance and to stabilize the walls. In 1923 alone, 41,000 cubic meters of material fell into the canal, which it required two years to clear out.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ Diogenes Laertius Diogenes Laertius , was a biographer of the Greek philosophers. Nothing is known about his life, but his surviving Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is one of the principal surviving sources for the history of Greek philosophy, "Life of Periander", 6
  2. ^ Verdelis, Nikolaos: "Le diolkos de L'Isthme", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 81 (1957), pp. 526–529 (526)
  3. ^ Cook, R. M.: "Archaic Greek Trade: Three Conjectures 1. The Diolkos", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 99 (1979), pp. 152–155 (152)
  4. ^ Drijvers, J.W.: "Strabo VIII 2,1 (C335): Porthmeia and the Diolkos", Mnemosyne, Vol. 45 (1992), pp. 75–76 (75)
  5. ^ Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261 (256)
  6. ^ Lewis, M. J. T., "Railways in the Greek and Roman world", in Guy, A. / Rees, J. (eds), Early Railways. A Selection of Papers from the First International Early Railways Conference (2001), pp. 8–19 (11)
  7. ^ a b Werner, Walter: "The largest ship trackway in ancient times: the Diolkos of the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece, and early attempts to build a canal", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1997), pp. 98–119 (114)
  8. ^ Verdelis, Nikolaos: "Le diolkos de L'Isthme", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique (1957, 1958, 1960, 1961, 1963)
  9. ^ Raepsaet, G. & Tolley, M.: "Le Diolkos de l’Isthme à Corinthe: son tracé, son fonctionnement", Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique, Vol. 117 (1993), pp. 233–261
  10. ^ Werner, Walter: "The largest ship trackway in ancient times: the Diolkos of the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece, and early attempts to build a canal", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1997), pp. 98–119
  11. ^ Gerster, Bela, "L'Isthme de Corinthe: tentatives de percement dans l'antiquité", Bulletin de correspondance hellénique (1884), Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 225–232 (227f.)
  12. ^ Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory, "Lives of the Caesars: Julius Caesar", 44.3
  13. ^ Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus, commonly known as Suetonius , was an equestrian and a historian during the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is a set of biographies of twelve successive Roman rulers, from Julius Caesar until Domitian, entitled De Vita Caesarum. Other works by Suetonius concern the daily life of Rome, politics, oratory,, "Lives of the Caesars: Nero", 19.2
  14. ^ Gerster, Bela, "L'Isthme de Corinthe: tentatives de percement dans l'antiquité", Bulletin de correspondance hellénique (1884), Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 225–232 (228 & 232)
  15. ^ Werner, Walter: "The largest ship trackway in ancient times: the Diolkos of the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece, and early attempts to build a canal", The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, Vol. 26, No. 2 (1997), pp. 98–119 (115f.)
  16. ^ "Robbie Maddison Jumps Over Corinth Canal In Greece". dirtrider.com. April 7, 2010. http://www.dirtrider.com/features/web_exclusive/141_1004_red_bull_robbie_maddison_corinth_canal_jump_greece/index.html.
  17. ^ Geology and Ancient Culture Along the Corinth Canal
  18. ^ Corinth Canal History: 1923 A.C. — Nowadays

Further reading

Ancient attempts at a canal

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Corinth Canal

Coordinates A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified in three coordinates, using mainly a spherical coordinate system: 37°56′04″N 22°59′02″E / 37.93444°N 22.98389°E

Categories: Canals in Greece | Corinthia | 1890s in Greece | Cuttings

 

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