Isthmus (geography)
An isthmus (from ancient Greek ἰσθμός isthmós "isthmus") is the narrowest point of a land bridge , which is bounded on both sides by water and connects two larger land masses. The term isthmus is also used. An isthmus is often a suitable place to build a canal , as this is where the distance that the canal has to overcome is the smallest. Outstanding examples of this are the Corinth Canal and the Panama Canal , which both drastically reduce the length of certain shipping routes, but also the historic Xerxes Canal .
In the past, isthmuses were the preferred places to transport ships from one sea to another over land. Thucydides had already testified that ships were pulled across the Isthmus of Corinth . Homer's description of the two ports separated by land of the Phaeacians : "... ships are dragged up a path; all of them have a frame for themselves “could refer to an isthmus. According to a theory by Armin Wolf , the passage could refer to the isthmus of Calabria (isthmus of Tiriolo ), where a land stretch of only 3,500 meters from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Ionian Sea had to be overcome using the rivers .
As a counterpart to the isthmus as a combination of land masses which applies strait or strait (. Eg as the narrow connecting two seas Street Gibraltar ).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War. 3.15.
- ↑ Homer: Odyssey . 6,364-265.
- ↑ Armin Wolf : Homer's journey: in the footsteps of Odysseus. Completely revised new edition. Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2009, p. 144 ff.
