Jeff's Blog - Wednesday, October 5, 2016 - Mycenae and Corinth

I started my day in Mycenae where I visited the ruins of a fortress/palace from about 1300 BC. Like at Tyrins, the walls are super thick and heavy. The first photo is of the Lion's Gate entrance to the citadel. The horizontal stone above the gate weighs 18 tons. The second photo is taken inside a three- or four-story-tall beehive-shaped tomb built into a hillside. Zooming in on the top and spinning yielded the 3rd photo, just for fun.

Then I went to Corinth, which I wasn't expecting much from, but I am sooo glad I went. The Corinth Canal was awesome to see... so deep a cut into the rocks, and so narrow. It was attempted in the 1st century BC but abandoned, and finally cut into the rock from 1881 to 1893. But the real treat was Ancient Corinth and the spectacular museum they had there. I won't bore you with museum photos, but there was a great view of Acrocorinth from Ancient Corinth, too. Acrocorinth is the acropolis on the huge rock mountaintop behind the speaker's podium of Ancient Corinth in the photo. I'll drive up and visit Acrocorinth tomorrow. Meanwhile, the sunset was beautiful; first decent one I've seen in Greece. And after sunset, the Temple of Apollo in Ancient Corinth is lit up, with Acrocorinth and tomorrow morning's drive, looming in the background.

Another day of driving has taken me from point D (Nafplio) to point F (Corinth) on the map. You can see on the map how Corinth is situated at the thinnest piece of land between mainland Greece, to the north, and the Peloponnese, at the southwest. The canal allowed quicker east-west shipping, without having to go around the Peloponnese.
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