During our 60 days sailing journey, one of the most important and exciting locations was the Corinth Canal.

We made lots of plans and readings before coming here and there were also a lot of sayings such as “you have to wait for hours for the vessels coming from the other side, be careful with the rocks, etc.”

For us this was the historical gate for our Aegean Sea. This 6 km manmade canal was built more than 100 years ago. There are a number of man-made canals across the world, built to cut short the route of ships, such as the Panama, the Suez, etc., and they offer easier or alternative transportation routes across major seawater networks worldwide. The Corinth Canal in Greece is one of the oldest such canals in the world.

The canal is quite narrow, only ships with a width of 58 ft. or less can transit. But the canal is a vital lifeline for ships wanting to enter the Aegean Sea, it saves the 430-mile journey around the Peloponnese. A railway line, a road and a motorway all cross the Corinth Canal. According to various reports, around 15,000 ships from at least 50 countries transit through the canal.