The Corinthian Canal [1] ( Greek Διώρυγα ορίνθου or Διώρυξ Κορίνθου ) is a free navigation canal in Greece connecting the Saronic Gulf of the Aegean and the Corinthian Gulf of the Ionian Sea [2] . Dug through the Isthmus of Corinth , connecting the Peloponnese peninsula with the central part of Greece. The name was in honor of the city of Corinth , located at the western end of the channel. The operation of the canal began in 1893.
Corinth Canal | |
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Greek Διώρυγα της Κορίνθου | |
Corinth Canal | |
Location | |
A country |
|
Characteristic | |
Length | 6 km |
Watercourse | |
Head | Corinthian Gulf |
· Head location | Corinth |
Mouth | Saronic |
- head, - mouth | |
The length of the channel is 6 kilometers, the depth is 8 meters. The walls of the canal are of natural origin, mainly limestone , the height of the walls reaches 76 meters. The width of the channel at sea level is 25 meters, and at the bottom - 21 meters. One railroad bridge and three road bridges are thrown across the canal. Additionally, submersible bridges operate at both ends of the canal.
Content
History
Since ancient times, attempts have been made to build a canal in this place. The first mention refers to the VII century BC. Oe., when the Corinthian tyrant Periander , ranked among the seven sages of ancient Greece , tried to dig a waterway, but stopped work. The reason for the cessation of work was Periander’s fear that, due to the disparity between the levels of the Aegean and Ionian seas, land might be flooded. According to another version, he was afraid to arouse the wrath of the gods, because the oracle at Delphi proclaimed: “Do not supply the isthmus with a tower, and do not break through it (do not cross it with a canal)”. According to the assumptions, this prophecy came from the priests of the Corinthian temples, who feared that due to the opening of the channel for a quick passage of ships, they would lose generous offerings and gifts, because the merchants would have no more reason to stay in Corinth [3] . Instead of the channel, the tyrant created a simpler and less expensive stone fiber , dubbed " Diolk ." The remains of Diolka currently exist near the canal.
About the possibility of laying the channel thought Demetrius Poliorket in 307 BC. er But he also left this thought when the Egyptian engineers, whom he hired to carry out his plans, assured him that the water level in the Gulf of Corinth and in the Saronic Gulf is not the same, and if you dig a strip of land, the waters of the Gulf of Corinth will flood into the Saronic Gulf, flood all area and wash away the neighboring islands.
When Corinth came under the power of the Romans, Julius Caesar and later Caligula also developed such plans. In AD 67, Emperor Nero made a third attempt to dig a canal, recruiting 6,000 slaves and convicts to work. This attempt failed when Nero had to return to Rome , where a revolt broke out against him. Shortly after the death of Nero, his successor Galba stopped a costly project. In subsequent years, Herod Atticus and later Byzantines tried to cross the isthmus, but their efforts were not crowned with success. The same can be said about the Venetians , who began work, but soon surrendered too.
After the Greek Revolution in 1821, the first President of Greece, Ioannis Kapodistrias, also made plans to build the Corinth Canal, seeing its importance for the development of Greece. He entrusted the development of the project to a French engineer, but for economic reasons these plans had to be abandoned.
After the opening of the Suez Canal, the Greek government in November 1869 issued a law on "the crossing of the Corinth isthmus by a canal." The design of the canal was entrusted to Hungarian architects Istvan Türr and Bele Gerster, who had previously prepared the project of the Panama Canal . May 5, 1882, after lengthy negotiations, work began on the construction of the canal. The construction of the canal was started by a French company, which stopped working due to financial difficulties, and did not finish the work. A Greek company led by a Greek banker and philanthropist Andreas Singru picked up the project and completed the project in record time. The operation of the canal began in 1893 . The canal allowed the ships around the Peloponnese to shorten the path by more than 400 kilometers.
Construction
The construction of the Corinth Canal was carried out for more than ten years ( 1881 - 1893 ) by two and a half thousand workers. On August 7, 1893, a celebration was held on the occasion of the opening of the Corinth Canal [4] .
World War II
During the invasion of Greece , on April 26, 1941, the Nazis landed a parachute assault on both sides of the canal, which, having caught the few forces of the allies defending it by surprise, captured and cleared the only bridge at that time. However, the explosive charges themselves were not removed by them in case the retreat was necessary, and the surviving defenders, firing a bridge from a cannon, fell into one of the charges, and the bridge blew up into the air. It took the German sappers 2 days to erect a temporary bridge, on which, on April 28, tanks of the 5th German Armored Division passed. The capture of the isthmus led to the capture of 12 thousand Allied soldiers remaining on the mainland, but due to the delay in the landing and the explosion of the bridge, the English Mediterranean fleet managed to evacuate 50 thousand from the Peloponnese. [five]
During the evacuation of troops from Greece in October 1944, the Germans left behind themselves terrible destruction. The channel was bombarded with over 645 thousand m³ of soil and wreckage of a railway bridge, as well as the remains of abandoned equipment, including railway rolling stock, mines and the steam vessel Vesta, blown up and submerged in the channel. In addition, in the absence of maintenance, the water area was markedly deposited with sediments. American enterprises under US State Department contracts with the active support of American engineering troops under the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan were engaged in restoration work. The Stirz Grove joint venture was engaged in clearing the canal with the help of drags , cranes, excavators and other floating and ground equipment. Another consortium, Atkinson-Drake Park, has been restoring the road network of Greece, including railway bridges [approx. 1] . Clearing was started in November 1947, and after 8 months of work, on July 7, 1948, the canal was opened for ships with shallow draft, and in September for all ships. [6] [7]
Channel today
Currently, the channel has partly lost its economic importance. Due to the narrowness of the waterway, reverse movement is organized in it. Large ocean vessels, whose width is close to 20 meters, cannot pass through the channel. Large vessels pass the canal in tow, as there is a danger of wall erosion. Up to 15,000 ships pass through the canal per year [2] .
Bungee jumping is practiced on the bridges of the canal.
In February 2018, a landslide occurred in the canal after heavy rains, as a result of which traffic along the canal was temporarily stopped. [eight]
Notes
- ↑ Specifically about the bridge over the canal and its appearance in the sources is not said, but it is said that the work included the restoration of critical railways, which most likely includes it through the isthmus.
- ↑ Corinth Canal // Dictionary of geographical names of foreign countries / resp. ed. A.M. Komkov . - 3rd ed., Pererab. and add. - M .: Nedra , 1986. - P. 173.
- ↑ 1 2 Corinth Canal // Military Encyclopedia / P. S. Grachev . - Moscow: Military publishing house, 1999. - Vol. 4. - p. 197. - ISBN 5-203-01876-6 .
- ↑ Diogen Laertius , “Life of Periander”, 6 (inaccessible link) . The appeal date is February 12, 2009. Archived July 22, 2011.
- ↑ Corinth Canal History: 1923 AC - Nowadays (inaccessible link) . Archived November 17, 2007.
- ↑ Miller D. (Anatoly Taras). Part 2. Hitler's elite army formations (1935-1945) // Commandos: Formation, training, outstanding operations of special forces. - Mn. : Harvest, 1999. - Landing on the Corinth Canal, 1941. - 463 p. - (Commando). - ISBN 985-433-173-3 .
- ↑ Historical Vignettes> Military Construction Combat> 056 - New District (not available link) . Headquarters US Army Corps of Engineers (September 2002). The date of circulation is July 7, 2016. Archived August 22, 2016.
- ↑ Grathwol, Robert P., Donita M. Moorhas. Bricks, Sand, and Marble: US Army Corps of Engineers Construction in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, 1947-1991 . - Washington, DC: Center for Military History and Corps of Engineers, United States Army, 2009. - P. 10,13. - (US Army in the Cold War). - ISBN 978-0-016-081738 -0.
- ↑ The Corinth Canal in Greece was closed to ships due to a landslide . European truth. The appeal date is February 27, 2018.
Links
- corinthcanal.com (Greek) - official site (redirect to the site of the current operator)
- Corinth Canal (Inaccessible link) . Archived October 10, 2006. at NASA Earth Observatory
- Corinth Canal on Google Maps