Underwater excavations of the ancient city of Corinth uncovered monumental piers and evidence that the sunken port of Lechaion. Archaeologists have uncovered the infrastructure of a major harbour, and evidence of vibrant maritime activity spanning the 6th century BCE to the 6th century CE. Lechaion was one of the most important harbour towns of antiquity, and it had been in virtually continuous use for more than a thousand years from around 600 BC until the late 6th-early 7th century AD.

Recent discoveries include two monumental piers constructed of ashlar blocks along with a smaller dock, two areas of wooden caissons, a breakwater, and an entrance canal leading into Lechaion’s three inner harbour basins. The team of archaeologists discovered the remains of an early Byzantine pier constructed of six well-preserved wooden caissons, stretching a total of 57 meters in length, and a stone-lined entrance canal to the little-explored Inner Harbor of Lechaion. The caissons discovered in Lechaion are the first of their kind ever discovered in Greece with their wooden elements still preserved.

Navigators often preferred to anchor at one of Corinth’s two ports and have their cargo transported overland, due to the windswept nature of the capes at the southern extremity of the Peloponnese. Lightweight ships could be hauled over the isthmus on a platform that ran along a grooved pavement from sea to sea.

 

(after Haaretz)