Corinth Canal

The Corinth Canal marks the moment a journey changes. Behind lies Athens and Attica; across the bridge begins the Peloponnese, the peninsula of Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and Nafplio. Nearly every classical itinerary crosses here, and almost everyone stops, because the sight of the cut is worth far more than the few minutes it costs.

The engineering story runs deeper than the 1893 opening. The ancient Corinthians grew rich moving ships and cargo across this isthmus on the diolkos, a paved slipway whose traces survive, and Nero put six thousand labourers to work on a canal before events in Rome cut the project short. The French and Greek engineers who finished the job followed almost exactly the line his surveyors had chosen.

For the adventurous, the canal has a modern thrill: one of the world's highest bridge bungee jumps operates over the water in season. For everyone else, the pleasure is simpler, a coffee at the crossing, the long view down the corridor of rock and, with luck, a ship easing through with metres to spare on either side.

With our local team, the canal becomes the well timed pause it should be, folded into a day that continues to Ancient Corinth and its museum, the climb to Acrocorinth's Byzantine walls or straight on to Mycenae and Nafplio. You cross two seas in a step, and the Peloponnese opens ahead.