Ancient Corinth info needed.
Feb 1st, 2011, 12:29 AM
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Ancient Corinth info needed.
Hello! I am planning to visit Greece in the spring. I will travel with my wife and two children, 17 and 19. We are thinking of hiring a car and drive to Peloponese for 4-5 days ands then go to the islands. As far as Peloponese is concerned, I was wandering which are the most important cities that would be worth visiting. Does anybody know anything interesting about ancient Corinth?
Feb 1st, 2011, 02:28 AM
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Our family drove around the Peloponese a few years ago and visited ancient Corinth. I highly recommend. You can visit acro-Corinth nearby on the same day. I also liked Mycenae and Epidaurus. The roads in the Peloponese are very winding, so give yourself more time than you think you will need to get to the sites. Also, we went to the most popular places in the early mornings and almost had the places to ourselves. The tour buses would start arriving late morning.
If you get a chance, take the ferry to Hydra and walk to the monestary. It is tiring, but the views are spectacular.
If you get a chance, take the ferry to Hydra and walk to the monestary. It is tiring, but the views are spectacular.
Feb 1st, 2011, 02:48 AM
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"which are the most important cities"
What do you mean by important? Overwhelmingly the most important Peloponnese city in classical Greece was Sparta. But there's very little worth visiting there, if time's short.
Corinth, technically, isn't in the Peloponnese. There's some pretty standard classical ruins - interesting to specialists, reasonably typical of any classical Greek city if you've not seen many anywhere else, but otherwise of very limited interest. It features a lot as a nuisance in Athenian history, but except for its citizens' persistent tendency to oppose Athens, very little is known about what actually went on there, except that they invented the Corinthian capital on pillars. It's probably most relevant to our culture because Paul's best known epistle was sent to the nascent Christian community there. But that was 200 years after the invading Romans demolished most of what was standing when Greek cities were independent.
In the Peloponnese proper, I like Olympia, Mistras and above all Mycenae. Nauplion, IMHO, is pretty but otherwise boring and little more than a lot of picturesque locations to eat the same food as all the other tourists. The drive down from the modern town of Sparti (one of the most charm-free places in Greece, but almost certainly a lot prettier than the ancient town of Sparta would have been) to Monemvasia (the source of the Malmsey wine in butts of which errant medieval English celrebrities were wont to be drowned) though the stark Mani, is visually very interesting. The world's greatest living travel writer, Patrick Leigh-Fermor, whose many achievements including having been my dad's first platoon commander, writes well about it - and practically everywhere else in Europe.
I would urge you, though, to think about re-routing slightly to take in Delphi, then returning to the Peloponnese. And don't underestimate how slow Peloponnese driving can be off the motorways.
What do you mean by important? Overwhelmingly the most important Peloponnese city in classical Greece was Sparta. But there's very little worth visiting there, if time's short.
Corinth, technically, isn't in the Peloponnese. There's some pretty standard classical ruins - interesting to specialists, reasonably typical of any classical Greek city if you've not seen many anywhere else, but otherwise of very limited interest. It features a lot as a nuisance in Athenian history, but except for its citizens' persistent tendency to oppose Athens, very little is known about what actually went on there, except that they invented the Corinthian capital on pillars. It's probably most relevant to our culture because Paul's best known epistle was sent to the nascent Christian community there. But that was 200 years after the invading Romans demolished most of what was standing when Greek cities were independent.
In the Peloponnese proper, I like Olympia, Mistras and above all Mycenae. Nauplion, IMHO, is pretty but otherwise boring and little more than a lot of picturesque locations to eat the same food as all the other tourists. The drive down from the modern town of Sparti (one of the most charm-free places in Greece, but almost certainly a lot prettier than the ancient town of Sparta would have been) to Monemvasia (the source of the Malmsey wine in butts of which errant medieval English celrebrities were wont to be drowned) though the stark Mani, is visually very interesting. The world's greatest living travel writer, Patrick Leigh-Fermor, whose many achievements including having been my dad's first platoon commander, writes well about it - and practically everywhere else in Europe.
I would urge you, though, to think about re-routing slightly to take in Delphi, then returning to the Peloponnese. And don't underestimate how slow Peloponnese driving can be off the motorways.
Feb 1st, 2011, 10:42 AM
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I enjoyed ancient Corinth. It is a small site, but the Temple of Apollo is impressive. It dates from 550 BC and is the largest temple to Apollo in Greece. You can also still see the Bema of Apostle Paul – where Paul was brought by Roman pro-consul Lucius Julius Gallio (brother of Seneca) in 52 AD
described in Acts 18:1-17.
I visited around 5pm, and there were only several other people there, so maybe that contributed to the special feeling that I thought the site had. If you are driving from Athens to the Peloponnese you pass right by it, and it doesn't take a long time to visit. I would recommend it.
described in Acts 18:1-17.
I visited around 5pm, and there were only several other people there, so maybe that contributed to the special feeling that I thought the site had. If you are driving from Athens to the Peloponnese you pass right by it, and it doesn't take a long time to visit. I would recommend it.
Feb 2nd, 2011, 02:42 AM
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Have a look at this guide http://ancient-corinth.com/ because it includes a great variety of information concerning ancient Corinth and the archaeological sites of it such as the Acrocorinth. In my opinion, it is definitely a worth visiting place especially if you passing by that area.
Mar 4th, 2014, 12:12 AM
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Anyone interested in visting not only Ancient Corinth but the Pelloponese should see this website. It is relatively new but includes a comprehensive description of all destinations of interest within an hour of Ancient Corinth, it also includes pages of where to eat,stay, info on camping, local ammentites - even the number for a vetinarian if you are staying with pets. It is the only such comprehensive "one-stop- shop" for info on the village. www.ancientcorinth.info
greg
greg
Mar 4th, 2014, 08:29 AM
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All of this is good information.
However I think that Ancient Nemia needs a marketing department, Not only is it 5 minutes from Ancient Corinth but it used to be a sister location to Olympia and has its own stadium and had games as well.
Just where you turn off the road to head south to Nafplion turn right instead and within a couple of minutes you will find Namia. The stadium is still there with a partially restored temple and a great little museum. In total it will take no more than an hour to visit and you will be one of the few people to have visited as the tour buses ignore this site.
Also little mentioned is Ancient Tiyrns just 4km outside of Nafplion. How can you not want to visit the home of Hercules.
Here are images of our trip to the Peloponnese. You will see images of Ancient Corinth, Nemia, Myceane, Tiyrns Nafplion Epaduarus, Mistras, Mani and Monemvassia. All can be visited in a week trip
Nafplio and Peloponnese http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632094108982/
However I think that Ancient Nemia needs a marketing department, Not only is it 5 minutes from Ancient Corinth but it used to be a sister location to Olympia and has its own stadium and had games as well.
Just where you turn off the road to head south to Nafplion turn right instead and within a couple of minutes you will find Namia. The stadium is still there with a partially restored temple and a great little museum. In total it will take no more than an hour to visit and you will be one of the few people to have visited as the tour buses ignore this site.
Also little mentioned is Ancient Tiyrns just 4km outside of Nafplion. How can you not want to visit the home of Hercules.
Here are images of our trip to the Peloponnese. You will see images of Ancient Corinth, Nemia, Myceane, Tiyrns Nafplion Epaduarus, Mistras, Mani and Monemvassia. All can be visited in a week trip
Nafplio and Peloponnese http://www.flickr.com/photos/stanbr5...7632094108982/
Mar 4th, 2014, 06:07 PM
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I second Stanbr. His enthusiasm convinced me last June to steer our carful of ruin-lovers to Nemea ... and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Beautifully kept! Green Grass, Good Signage! (It's an official project of the Archeology dept of UC Berkeley -- aha! $$ talks!). They have authenticallly restored the temple, restacking the marble "drums" of many columns, and have faithfully repaired the stadium... where you can pose on the racer's starting line. Furthermore, the whole area is vineyards, yielding the best red wine in Greece IMHO, Nemean Red. You can browse the internet to find a list of Vineyards, but the easiest thing is, after the ruins, get to the little village of Nemea, and there's a vintner right on the main street (the clue is a huge tank in the backyard). Watch the bottlecapping machine, the labeling machine, have plenty of tastes, and take a bottle back to Athens, as we did, for a toast on the terrace on our last night!
Mar 5th, 2014, 06:40 AM
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Mariha, I believe that flannerUK knew that because he spoke about "re-routing" and "then returning to the Peloponnese." It's my guess that his intent was that the OP would start his journey with a drive to Delphi, and only after that go over the isthmus to Peloponnese ... but it is not clear.
Brendon, agree with you on attractions of West area of Peloponnese ... it will be up to the family to decide how much time to be spent in driving there & back if they have only 4 days.
Brendon, agree with you on attractions of West area of Peloponnese ... it will be up to the family to decide how much time to be spent in driving there & back if they have only 4 days.
