Korinthia

Accommodation

Korinth: Corinth is built on the Isthmus, the canal connecting Central Greece with the Peloponnese; she overlooks the Saronic Gulf, the Aegean as well as the Ionian Sea protected by the hill of the Acrocorinth and possesses numerous springs. The city called by Homer Ephyra ("the richest") occupies one of the most privileged locations in continental Greece. For that reason, she was inhabited from the fifth millennium BC and had been the mythical city of Medea, of Sisyphus and of Vellelrephontes. She was re-established by the Dories and she was the first among the Greek cities where hereditary kingship evolved into aristocracy, under the rule of the Bachiadae dynasty and later into tyranny with Cypselus and Periandrus as the first tyrants (629,585 BC). At that time she was one of the biggest colonial powers, founder of Corfu and Syracuse, as well as one of the pioneers in the production of copper utensils and vessels, which were largely exported in all the markets of the Mediterranean between 650 and 550 BC. The city is built on a rocky hill above the Isthmus. Around 550 BC, on the most conspicuous position, they built one of the most ancient Doric temples in Greece, devoted to Apollo. This was a peripteral long temple with 6 pillars on the facades and 15 on each long side. A transversal wall divided the main temple into two sections. Each section had a facade with two pillars, a porch and a cella with a double row of pillars at the back. The biggest part of the temple was destroyed, but one can follow its plan by the indentations on the walls used to insert plaques. Today, in their place, there are seven pillars on the south, over the Agora and on the east, above the road with the pillars that led to the port of Lechaeon. On the northwestern side one can see the two large theatres on the slope of the mountain, brought to light after excavations.