Diolkos (overland ship haulage at the Isthmus of Corinth)
Diolkos (varadero terrestre del istmo de Corinto)
- Date
- c. 600 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Isthmus of Corinth, Corinthia, Greece
- Credited to
- City of Corinth (traditionally the tyrant Periander)
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A limestone paved track with parallel grooves along which ships and cargo were hauled on wheeled platforms between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. It saved a detour of some 400 km around the Peloponnese.
Ancient sources mention it from Thucydides and Strabo on; the construction date (late 7th or 6th century BC) and its Hellenistic and Roman use are inferred from archaeology.
What it led to
- commercial and military traffic between the Aegean and the Adriatic
- Corinth's wealth from tolls
- precedent for the isthmus canal, opened in 1893