The Corinth Canal, a man-made wonder, is a waterway across the Isthmus of Corinth, connecting the Gulf of Corinth in the northwest with the Saronic Gulf in the southeast.

The Corinth Canal, a man-made wonder, is a waterway across the Isthmus of Corinth, connecting the Gulf of Corinth in the northwest with the Saronic Gulf in the southeast. 

Before the canal was built, ships were forced to make the long journey around the peloponnese Peninsula, adding an extra 320 kilometres to their journey. 

In around 600 BC, Periander, the founder of the Cypselid Dynasty of Corinth, had the brilliant idea of taking ships out of the water and pulling them overland, on a type of railroad track; the diolkos (parts of which are still visible today), on which ships were hauled on wheeled wagons across the Isthmus. 

This practice was used until about the 9th century, when ships had become too large for this system. 

In 1882 work began on digging out, mostly by hand, the Corinth Canal, which opened 11 years later, in 1893. 

The canal walls are more than 240 feet (80m) high, with an in-water depth of 24 feet (8m) and just over 3.7 miles (6km) long. 

The Canal is a popular tourist attraction; large ships being pulled through the canal by small tugboats, a sight worth seeing. 

Photo by DronEye

Thanks for sharing this. It has brought back happy emories of a trip we made there in 2017. I'd seen a particular view of the canal at school many years ago and always imagined what it might be like to stand there over the steepest cut of the canal. In 2017 - I made it. This is my shot from that visit.