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BY
8A.M., AFTER a quick breakfast of coffee and
bread, we were on our way in a taxi to Acrocorinthos, the ruin
of the fortress and citadel high above the ancient city. We had seen it the day
before from a distance but as it was too high up for George’s car to
climb.
| . . . Ganid never grew weary of visiting the citadel
which stood almost two thousand feet above the sea. . . [1472] |
| The
ascent
to Acrocorinth is 1887 ft
and is facilitated by a road which climbs to a point near the lowest
gate on the west side. This commanding site was fortified in ancient
times, and its defenses were maintained and developed during the
Byzantine, Frankish, Turkish and Venetian periods. . . . Within the fortress we
follow a path running northeast to the remains of a 16th century mosque and then turn south until we join a path leading up to the eastern
summit, on which there once stood the famous Temple of Aphrodite.
[http://www.greecetaxi.gr]
|
We climbed to the top and shot many pictures and
videotape. From here we were able to look in all four directions. . .
.
Joy was at the very top when she
took this picture of me
| .
. . One evening as they strolled about Corinth out near where the wall of the citadel ran down
to the sea, they were accosted by two public women. . . . [1472]
|
After a while, I walked down alone to the taverna for
a Greek salad and a nostalgic Stella Artois beer. I wanted to sit in
this panoramic spot and take in the history, read my guidebooks and
write in my diary while waiting for Joy. When she returned, having
examined every nook, cranny and crevice of the citadel, the owner called
us a taxi to take us to the town square of Old Corinth where we sat
waiting for the bus sipping ice-cold café frappés.
Greece is one place where one can find plenty of interesting outdoor places to eat and drink!
*
* *
At noon George picked us up for a tour of the Corinth
Canal and the second harbor, Kenchreai, as well as the remains of the
tracks over which the Jesus boat was hauled from one harbor to the
other.
A
view of the isthmus, four miles wide at its narrowest point.
In
Jesus's day the Corinth Canal had not been built,
and boats arriving from Italy (like the one Jesus and his companions
traveled on) would dock in one of Corinth’s harbors and be dragged
overland to the other harbor when continuing their journey to Athens and
points east.
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Gonod had many interests in Corinth, but finally his
business was finished, and they prepared to sail for Athens. They
traveled on a small boat which could be carried overland on a land track
from one of Corinth's harbors to the other, a distance of ten miles.
[1471]
|
A section of the diolkos.
George had speculated that over the last two thousand
years the water has risen, which would explain the difference between 4
and 10 miles. My theory is that the harbors are ten miles apart but the diolkos
is only four miles long—they would have sailed the boat from one
harbor to the diolkos, tracked the boat four miles over to the
other side, then sailed it to the other harbor, for a total of ten
miles. Another idea is that the overland route has twists and turns,
adding up to a total of ten miles. Anybody else got any theories?
Remains of the harbor at Kenchreai
George with the Corinth Canal in the
background
*
* *
On the way home we stopped off at George’s local
ouzeri where, after several small pitchers of local wine, Joy and I became
very friendly with the regulars as well as the owner. This gave me
another chance to practice my almost-forgotten Greek. I caught it all on
videotape.
Back home Helen had prepared food for us, so we ate
again. By then we were zonked and all of us joined in the Greek custom
of taking a long afternoon nap. After a few hours George woke Joy up to
show her his olive farm, a large property that had been in
the Markellos family for generations and which sits on a hill
overlooking modern Corinth.
Having visited it many times in the past, I skipped the tour in favor of
more sleep.
Still
groggy from the wine, I roused myself in the early evening as we had promised
the whole family dinner out at a local taverna. The Markellos’s
son Alex (I hadn’t seen him since he was a young teen) joined us there
with his sophisticated Athenian girlfriend, Vera. Alex had made a name
for himself in Greek television as a reporter and announcer, and was now
the general manager of the local TV station in Corinth. During dinner we
all became enthusiastic about the idea of doing a documentary about Jesus’ time in
Corinth, envisioning it as a slick American production with a Greek voiceover, that would
show the modern Corinthians a bit of their history they were unaware of.
Maybe one day someone will actually do this!
Back home Joy and I polished off yet another bottle
of retsina with George, while Helen stuck to coffee. Finally George went to bed, but before he did,
he gave us the keys to the trunk of his car, calling it his "wine
cellar,” in case we wanted still more!
*
* *
CLICK
HERE TO RETURN TO CALENDAR
or
read on by clicking on any of the following
links:
1.
From Los Angeles to Amsterdam
2. The Flight to Greece
3. Ancient
Corinth
4.
The
Citadel
this
page
5. To Piraeus
6. Hania on
Crete
7. A
Day in Limbo
8. Back
to Athens
9. From
Athens to Cairo
10. Cairo
11. The Pyramids
12. The Bus to Israel
13. Jerusalem
14. Bethany and Bethpage
15. An Old Palestinian Hotel
16. The Drive to Galilee
17. Capernaum and Environs
18. The Ancient Boat and Nazareth
19. The Golan Heights and Mt. Hermon
20. The Eastern Shore and Scythiopolis
21. Mount of the Beatitudes
22. Ptolemais and Caesarea
23. A Day in Piraeus
24. Santorini
25. A Rainy Day
26. An Eventful Day in Athens
27. Return to Amsterdam
28. Going Home
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