Corinth Cannel

The next morning we continue west. Rather than having to sail all the way around the Peloponnesus, we are able to take a short cut through the Corinth Cannel. The cannel is about a 3.2-mile stretch that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Aegean Sea. Nero first started digging the cannel back in Roman times using 6000 Jewish slaves, but never finished it. It seems a little uprising in Gaul distracted him from the project. Octavia tried to bridge the gap by building a road and dragging his boats across this narrow stretch of lands. The remains of that road can still be seen. It wasn’t until 1893 that the cannel was finally cut through the limestone. In its day, it was quite the engineering feat. A hundred plus years later, it is almost outdated. Too narrow and too shallow to really function for commercial ships, the cannel is used mostly for private yachts like ours taking a shortcut to the Gulf of Patras. As we pass through we can still see many of the original stonework used to hold up the limestone walls on both sides.