What I can say about today is John and I stood on the Bema where the Jews brought Paul before Gallio to be judged. HOW COOL IS THAT? (Acts 18:12-17)
"To the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours; grace to you and peace from God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 1:2-3)
Let me start at the beginning of our day. As usual we were up, had breakfast, ready, and waiting in the lobby for our 8a pickup. George was prompt and his taxi was a Mercedes Benz, which was clean and comfortable. He had bottles of cold water in a cooler for us to have as needed. George showed us a couple of sites as we crawled our way out of the city, I didn't want to tell him we already saw these sites with Alexandra and disturb his plan. As he drove he told us a lot of information about this city of Eleusis, a mythical story. It sounded familiar. Anyway half way to Eleusis (which we are not going to) we stopped at a Byzantine Monastery of Daphni. The Monastery was badly damaged over the years and by an earthquake in the 1980's. They are painstaking restoring it and it has been closed for some time. However, it is a quick stop and he thought we might like to see it. It is supposed to be open on Tuesday and Friday from 8a-10a so our timing is good. We have never seen such a site! It is the typic al old stone look on the outside and inside there is gold and bright colors being restored on the walls and ceiling. The mosaics do not look completed like they show in photos but only parts are restored. There was one other couple that was very quiet, like we were, it seemed like a very spiritual time. I don't think my photos do it justice. I could not even get a photo of the full outside so I found one online.
Not Completely Restored
One of Many Restored Sections
So after a visit there we continued on our way to our first stop at the Corinth Canal. Another amazing site. This used to be the Isthmus of Corinth until 1893 when this canal was completed after 11 years of work. It is 3.6 miles long and finally connected the Ionian Sea and the Aegean Sea, creating the Corinth Canal. It is breathtaking to walk along the pedestrian walk, a stretch for me as it is narrow. John took most of the photos from this point. George brought us along the old road at the top bridges so we can see it from this perspective. He will take us to the lower area near the end of our visit in Corinth. The first to try this construction was Periander in the 7th century BC. He soon gave up and instead built stone ramp as a way to move goods and small vessels across the Isthmus of Corinth. called the Diolkos Passage or stone carriage way. Nero attempted to construct this with Jewish slaves in 67 AD but this was abandoned after his death. The remnants of the stone passage way still remain, although quite overgrown with grass and wildflowers, George will show us that when we go down to the water later. At one point in history they rolled s hips along logs from one side to the other, using some ancient Egyptian devices. Seems like a lot of work but in fact is saved them 200 nautical miles!
Map of the Area
Now on to Ancient Corinth. We drove through the current city of about 2K people to the ruins of Ancient Corinth and the Museum. The museum was small but very interesting. it really had nothing to do with Paul but had some very interesting items. The most interesting was two Sarcophagui with two men of approximate 35 years old and the Sarcophagui had two bigger-than-life statues on top of them. We were not allowed to photograph that exhibit because the docent said the information has not been published yet. The skeletal remains still had perfect teeth intact. It was all quite amazing to look at. It was very quiet in the museum and the docent showed us several things and explained them to us. The museum is small so it didn't take long to see everything.
Museum Photos
Trade Amphora
Mirror
Bed
Now we are outside in the Ancient City of Corinth. Paul stayed on in Corinth for 18 months staying with Priscilla and Aquila, he met them when he came here from Athens (Acts 18:1-3). Then he went on to Ephesus, taking Priscilla and Aquila with him. (Acts 18:18-19) First we can see the market area, the Temple of Apollo, and many other partial structures that we don't know what they are. Birds are singing, bees buzzing around the wildflowers in bloom, and a group of monks are softly singing Hallelujah under a tree to our right in the shade. Can you see the splendor of this place in time? We walked on amazed by what we saw and came to the Bema where Paul was taken before Gallio (Acts 18:12-17) this is a bit surreal! To think that we can just walk right up there is astonishing! I wonder what Paul saw as he looked out over the area? Surely the Temple of Apollo as it is large. Could he see the Ionian Sea from where he was? He was a small man, if trees or structures were too high, maybe not. Surely he could look up at Acrocorinth! George told us Paul stayed in a cave on the side of the mountain part of his stay in this area, I have not attempted to confirm or deny this yet. George also told us to take as long as we want in the area. He is parked near the exit, he is not allowed to come in with us to be a guide, one has to hire a professional guide to take you through. In hindsight, that would have been nice because there isn't even a pamphlet to guide you through, only a map on a plaque and some signage. There are at least a couple of church groups here reading Bible verses under the few shade trees in the area. What an amazing place. This morning we were tired and could have stayed in bed, thanking God we did not!!! Everything pales in comparison to this stop but I will enter the rest of our activities for the day.
Market Place
Bema
Plaque on Bema
Bema & Acrocorinth
Market Place
The all important lunch was next. It was the only lunch we were slightly disappointed in, just that the lamb was dry. The Greek Salad was huge and we had an artichoke dish called aginares me araka (artichoke and pea stew) with the largest artichoke hearts I have ever seen, the one is about 3" across!
Lunch
After lunch we headed to the Ancient Port of Cenchreae where Paul came when he entered this area. There isn't much there but a tattered sign and a few men fishing. The shore curves and on the other side of the curve it says that is ancient Christian dwellings or remains of a basilica. I stuck my hand in the water and talked to the guy fishing, he caught something but I didn't recognize the name he said. George said "bull head" but that is a fresh water fish no one want to eat, so who knows? It was nice to see the port anyway. There is a lot to read about the Corinth Area. We saw the stone carriage way where they pulled boats and cargo across the Isthmus.
Ancient Port of Cenchreae
Stone Railway - The Diolkos
"The Diolkos was a roadway with a width of 10 meters at the
starting point on the Gulf of Corinth. The stone-paving began at the very edge
of the sea. Ships were taken to this starting point and there dragged onto the
Diolkos. These ships rested initially on wooden cylinders and were then
transferred to a special wheeled vehicle. To reduce the weight of
the ship as far as possible, it was unloaded before being hoisted onto the
Diolkos and the unloaded commodities were taken by ordinary road to the other
end of the Isthmus. Narrowing to between 3.50 and 6 metres after its starting
point the Slipway was paved with porous stone throughout its length. Two deep
parallel grooves, which ran at a distance of 1.50 metres from each other,
marked the Diolkos. Thus, the ship was dragged all across the Isthmus.
On reaching the Slipway's terminus on the Saronic Gulf, it was lowered into the
sea, the cargo was loaded again, and the ship continued with its journey. This
arrangement did not merely speed up traffic. It also enabled ships moving
between the Central and Eastern Mediterranean to avoid the rough seas almost
unavoidable in a voyage round the Peloponnese."
Now we have just a quick drive to a crossing at the sea level of the Corinth Canal. Our timing was perfect because they have a bridge that submerges in the water 27-28' to let boats pass. It was down when we arrived so we saw two boats pass through and then watched as the bridge reappeared from beneath the water. It took about five minutes for it to come up into place. After that we walked across it and got a few photos. What great timing! The bridge only submerges on demand and it doesn't happen that often according to George.
Corinth Canal From Sea Level
It took about an hour to get back to our hotel, there is a lot of traffic when you reach Athens. We relaxed the rest of the day. I would highly recommend George's Taxi to anyone wanting a organized private tour company. They can take 2-4 in the taxi we had but they have vans and buses as well. George and his three sons run the business. George was born in Greece, met his wife who was born in Greece, in Australia. He lived in the USA and two of his sons were born there. He moved back to Greece because his wife missed her family too much. It is difficult to make a living here. Use George for cruise ship excursions and more. I will be writing a review on both Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor.
George's Taxi
What a remarkable day!
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