Olympia Full Day Tour

Corinth Canal

The half-day Ancient Corinth tour starts with a 45-mile drive along the National highway. We will reach the well-known Corinthian canal or else Isthmus canal that connects the Saronic Sea and the Corinthian Sea. The canal, though executed in the late 19th century, has been a 2000-year-old dream. Before its construction, ships in the Aegean Sea that wanted to cross to the Adriatic or anchor in Corinth, a rich shipping city, had to circle the Peloponnese, which would prolong their journey an extra 185 nautical miles. It is believed that Periander, the tyrant of Corinth (602 BC), was the first to conceive of the idea of digging the Corinth Canal. As the project was too complicated given the limited technical capabilities of the times, Periander constructed the diolkós, a stone road which allowed ships to be transferred on wheeled platforms. On 67 AD that Emperor Nero attempted the construction of the canal with a group of 6,000 slaves. But he was murdered before the plans were finalized. Finally, the construction of the canal came to an end at the last decade of the 19th century.

Olympia is well known for the Olympic Games, held every four years to honor God Zeus, beginning in 776 B.C. At Olympia we will visit the Temple of Zeus, where the gold and ivory statue of god Zeus stood, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Temple of Hera, where the Olympic Flame lights every four years, the workshop of Phidias, the ancient Olympic stadium and the Archaeological Museum.