The site of Ancient Corinth was first inhabited in the Neolithic period (5000-3000 B.C.).

Corinth was one of the oldest and most powerful cities of ancient Greece. It occupied a strategic position on the only land road from northern to southern Greece and was the site of an almost impregnable fortress. It was located in the middle of a very fertile land and, with its two harbors, one, Lech�um, east on the Saronic Gulf, the other, Cenchre�, west on the Gulf of Corinth, it was a leading commercial center (Thucydides' Histories, I, 13, 5).

By the Vth century B. C., a towpath (diolkos in Greek) across the Isthmus (about 6.5 km wide at the narrowest point) made it possible to haul ships from one harbor to the other, saving the trip around Peloponnese. Corinth was credited with many inventions in the fields of architecture (it was at the origin of the Corinthian style, the most ornate of the three classical orders of architecture), music and shipbuilding, including the invention of triremes, these warships owing their name to their three tiers of oars on each side that were used by many Greek cities in classical times in naval battles and were at the root of Athens' empire (Thucydides' Histories, I, 13, 3).

The peak period of the town, though, started in the 8th century B.C. and lasted until its destruction by the Roman general Mummius in 146 B.C.

Representative of its wealth is the Doric temple of Apollo which was built in 550 B.C. The city was reinhabited in 44 B.C. and gradually developed again. In 51/52 A.D., Apostle Paul visited Corinth. The centre of the Roman city was organized to the south of the temple of Apollo and included shops, small shrines, fountains, baths and other public buildings.

The invasion of the Herulians in A.D. 267 , initiated the decline of the city though it remained inhabited for many centuries through successive invasions and destructions, until it was liberated from the Turks in 1822.

Corinth was an important Greek city ideally situated on a narrow strip of land between the Greek mainland and the Peloponnesus. This was a crossing of the north-south land route and the land portage for ships between the Adriatic and Aegean Seas that allowed ships to avoid going around the treacherous capes of Peloponnesus.

The letters of 1 and 2 Corinthians are addressed to Christians in the city. In Roman times it was the capital of region and it grew in wealth, power and had a reputation for corruption. Paul stayed in Corinth for 18 months during his second missionary journey and probably visited on his third journey.

Limited excavations were conducted in 1892 and 1906 by the Archaeological Society of Athens under the direction of A. Skias. The systematic excavations of the area, initiated by the American School of Classical Studies in 1896, are still continuing today and have brought to light the agora, temples, fountains, shops, porticoes, baths and various other monuments. The investigations extended also to the fortress on Acrocorinthos, the prehistoric settlements, the Theatre, the Odeion, the Asklepeion, the cemeteries, the Quarter of the Potters, and other buildings outside the main archaeological site.

Marble sphinx from a funerary monument. It is resting on the hind legs and standing on the fore. Traces of painted decoration are preserved on the torso and the wings. Corinthian product, dated to the middle of the 6th century B.C. - Corinth Museum








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