Saturday 28th May 2011 – Acrocorinth, Greece

More ancient sites today starting with the site and museum of Isthmia where at 10:00 we were the first visitors and had the place to ourselves for the two hours that we were there. It really does deserve more visitors but the site at Ancient Corinth is the the big pull in this area and Isthmia is overlooked as a result.
Isthmia was a cult centre from the 11th century BC but is best known for being one of the four centres for Panhellenic games along with Delphi, Nemea and, of course, Olympia. The first games are though to have taken place in 582 BC and they continued until the Roman Lucius Mummius defeated the Archaean League near Corinth and destroyed Isthmia. Winners of the games were awarded a wreath of celery or pine and possibly a statue or ode. Still, it is the honour of winning that matters not the prize! These days Isthmia is not as well known as Delphi and Olympia mainly due to the fact that little of the site is left standing. This is due to almost all of its stones having been robbed for the construction in the 5th century AD by the Roman Hexamilion of the 9.5 km Isthmian Wall, a futile attempt to protect the Peloponnese from invasion by Barbarians. The last temple of Hera at Heraion, which we visited yesterday, was also a victim as it was reduced to lime for the wall. We strolled around the excellent, recently renovated, museum and then into the site where good information boards helped to explain what we were looking at. At the bottom of the site is a large Roman bath complex that apparently has some very good mosaics although they are now covered to protect them and cannot be seen. The information boards here had not been upgraded and were very difficult or impossible to read. However, I was able to establish that the baths existed in early Greek times and had been been extended by the Romans. The baths were in use for nearly one thousand years – quite impressive!
We moved on to Acrocorinth standing on the hill 575 metres above sea level. The Blue Guide suggested that it should be open to 17:00 in the Summer but it appears that the opening hours are now 08:30 to 15:00 all year. This meant that we had to delay lunch and head in straight away. The site is very large and spread over a steep hill and needs some time to fully explore it. The hill was continually occupied from before the 6th century BC until the Greek War of Independence in 1821. The existing defences are very impressive and were built, re-built and improved over this time. Walking up from the car park we crossed a dry moat where a drawbridge once stood to pass through the outer gate and wall (mainly Turkish), then to the second gate and wall (Venetian and Frankish) and finally the third gate and wall that is part Byzantine and part Ancient Greek. This just shows how important this castle was, protecting the entrance to the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland. We climbed to the highest point of the site where a temple of Aphrodite once stood and where there were one thousand religious prostitutes. All I can say is that the men must have been desperate to have climbed all the way up the hill for that. The views however were fantastic, deep into the Peloponnese and out over the Gulf of Corinth.
On the way back down we visited the Upper Peirene Spring a vital water source for the castle. Everywhere that we walked on the site we found cisterns designed to collect rain water but here there was a plentiful supply of fresh water, essential during sieges. Steps lead down to a pool of water some 3 to 4 metres deep.
We had parked Henrietta in a lovely position and were able to sit outside and enjoy the view whilst having a very late lunch. We liked the view so much that we decided to spend another night wild camping.
Photos: Lake Vouliagmeni; Roman glass (375 AD) from a house at Kenchreai near Isthmia; Commemorative stele erected to the honour of Loukios Komelios Korinthos who won many musical competitions including in the Isthmian Games; The impressive walls of Acrocorinth; The underground Upper Peirene Spring at Acrocorinth.