Lechaion
Lechaion ( Greek Λέχαιον ) was one of the most important ancient ports, located near the city of Corinth on the Gulf of Corinth in the Peloponnese (Greece).
Since the Corinth Canal did not exist in antiquity, the ships were unloaded in Lechaion, towed across the Diolkos and reloaded in Kenchreai on the Saronic Gulf , the same thing going on in the opposite direction. The port was since the 7th century BC. In operation and was connected to Corinth by a street, the monumental beginning of which is still clearly visible in the current excavation of the city, and by long walls. The port was still being expanded in 355 AD, but today it is silted up. Today, the remains of the Lechaion Basilica , the largest basilica in Greece (224 m long), which was built around 450 AD under Emperor Markianos and destroyed by an earthquake in 551, are particularly visible .
literature
- Donald W. Engels: Roman Corinth: an Alternative Model for the Classical City. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1990, ISBN 0-226-20870-2 ( review )
- Christopher Mee, Antony Spawforth: Greece. To Oxford Archaeological Guide. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, pp. 165-166.
- Rudolf Scheer: Art. Kenchreai. In: Siegfried Lauffer (Ed.): Greece. Lexicon of Historic Places. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 1989, pp. 376-377.
- Ronald S. Stroud: Lechaion Corinthia, Greece . In: Richard Stillwell et al. a. (Ed.): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1976, ISBN 0-691-03542-3 .
Web links
Coordinates: 37 ° 56 ' N , 22 ° 53' E