Ancient Corinth, Acrocorinth and Corinth canal.

Leaving our lovely Akrata beach camp site with its owners Manolis and Tula we head towards Corinth. It is a very hot day and as we near our destination the engine temperature overheats. We quickly stop and  find a pool of water under the engine.
Being mechanically minded, I thought this is not right, plus many expletives as you would expect at a time like this.  I topped up the water, as it was not boiling and we limped to the Camper stop at Aphrodite Waters.
This is a beautifully kept, private site with toilet and shower, small shop, electricity and camper service point all for 10 euro a night. It is within ten minutes walk from the Archaeological site and the owners are really friendly.
I called our breakdown service and asked for assistance. They were not very hopeful of anyone coming out to us in the near future but said they would get back to us.
In the meantime I asked the son of the campsite if his parents may know a local garage in the area.
The Grandfather jumped up and said follow me and led us on his scooter to the Main Fiat dealer ten minutes down the road. He spoke to the foreman of the workshop who sent a mechanic to look at the job . This is on a Friday afternoon. ! ! !
He found the problem straight away, a small heater hose had chaffed through on another hose clip.
I asked when they could mend it. He said right away. I was astonished and he completed the job whilst we waited. My bill for the job was 29 euros. Astonishing. How would that ever happen back home at a Main dealer ?

Refreshed and ready to go we arrived next morning at the gates of Ancient Corinth as they opened at 8.00 am.
We were the only ones there and started to explore the ruins.
This is a Roman site and was very prosperous because of its position close to the isthmus between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic gulf.

Temple of Apollo with Acrocorinth in the background.
 

The Odeion is on the entrance to the Archaeological site and below it are the ruins of a large Theatre.

This is the Glauke fountain, a series of four cisterns carved out of the rock and filled by an aqueduct from the hills.

The Temple of Apollo is the only building which was kept by the Romans and dates before their rebuilding of the site.

Temple of Octavia.

This is the impressive Lechaion way, a marble paved road which linked the port to the city.

The natural springs, Peirene Fountains.

The museum on site is well laid out and contains many of the Roman statues from the ruins and also a good display of mosaics from nearby Roman villas.

After retrieving our scooter from the camp we head up the hill to Acrocorinth, this is the hill you saw in the first picture.

The entrance is through three gateways which are from different eras. This first one is Turkish.

This third one is Byzantine.

Inside the complex at the summit there are the remains of Mosques, chapels and cisterns. The views from the Venetian tower at the top give you idea of the region.

We moved on down and headed to the Corinth canal which was completed in 1893 although the plans
date back to Emperor Nero's time.

Both ends of the canal have sinking bridges and we spent half a hour watching the process.
For us this was quite unique.

Going.

Gone.

Back up with traffic.

 

 Before the canal boats had to be dragged across land on a paved way by men with ropes and rollers.
This was to avoid the dangerous route around the cape and of course this traffic was what made Ancient Corinth such a prosperous place.