Ancient Corinth Archaeological Site

Ancient Corinth was notorious for luxury and pleasure. The Temple of Apollo, ancient agora, and famous Peirene Fountain remain impressive. Corinthian wine amphorae have been found throughout the Mediterranean, evidence of extensive wine trade. The museum displays drinking vessels and symposium equipment from a city famous for its parties.

What to do there

4 things to do

1. 1 Find the Ruins of a 2,500-Year-Old Wine Bar History · Price: moderate

   Archaeologists excavated a mid-5th century BCE commercial building at Ancient Corinth and found exactly what you'd expect in a thriving port city: a specialized wine and fish tavern with amphoras from across the Mediterranean.

   This is the 'wait, really?' moment of Ancient Corinth: in the 1970s, archaeologists excavated a mid-5th century BCE building and found it was a specialized tavern trading imported wine and preserved fish. Among the amphoras: 40% from the island of Chios, 5% from Mende in Chalkidike, and - most remarkably - Punic (North African/Carthaginian) amphoras indicating trade routes stretching 1,800 miles to Gades (modern Cadiz, Spain). This is the earliest hard evidence of West-East Mediterranean commercial wine networks. At the Ancient Corinth Archaeological Museum, ask specifically at the entrance desk about 'the Classical period commercial excavations' or 'amphora collections.' Look for the section on Corinth's trade connections. The amphora fragments (often with city-state seal stamps) are the physical proof of the Mediterranean wine network.

   Backup: The site's Temple of Apollo is the main visual draw, but the museum itself is where the wine story lives. Combined ticket covers both. If the specific display is hard to find, look for any amphora fragments with seal stamps - each stamp is a city-state's wine brand.

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2. 2 Taste the Trade Route at the Peirene Fountain Adventure · Free

   The Peirene Spring has been flowing since antiquity - Corinthian traders loaded their ships with wine at ports fed by this same water source.

   Fresh water in an ancient port city was as valuable as wine. The Peirene Spring (mythologically: Peirene wept so hard for her dead son that the gods transformed her into this spring) fed Corinth continuously from at least the 6th century BCE through Roman occupation. The same spring that watered the symposia of Corinthian merchants and diluted their imported Chian wine in the Classical period was still flowing when Paul of Tarsus walked through Corinth's agora around 50 AD. Stand at the Peirene Fountain - the large rectangular basin structure in the center of the Roman Forum - and look south toward Acrocorinth looming above. This is the view every trader, pilgrim, and symposium guest had. Note the Roman-era arched facade - this was a monument that multiple civilizations upgraded because they could not abandon such a reliable water source. Try to count the arched chambers visible from the front.

   Backup: If restoration work blocks close approach, the fountain is visible from the elevated walkways around the forum perimeter. From distance it reads as the largest single structure in the forum.

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3. 3 Stand Beneath the Seven Columns That Survived Roman Destruction History · Price: moderate

   In 146 BC, Roman general Mummius destroyed Corinth so completely that the city lay abandoned for 100 years. These seven columns of Apollo's temple are almost all that escaped.

   Seven monolithic columns of the archaic Temple of Apollo (built circa 540 BCE) still stand - survivors of one of antiquity's most total acts of urban destruction. In 146 BC, Mummius killed the men, enslaved the women and children, and burned everything. The same general who transferred the Isthmian Games to rival Sicyon (humiliating Poseidon's sanctuary at Isthmia). These columns stood through it all because you cannot easily topple monolithic stone. Julius Caesar refounded the city in 44 BCE as Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis - a Roman city on Greek bones. Walk to the base of the temple columns on the raised hill northwest of the main forum area and look east toward the Saronic Gulf. On a clear day you can see the water. Corinth controlled the diolkos - a paved road across the isthmus where ships were physically dragged overland to avoid the dangerous Cape Malea route. Every amphora of wine traded across this isthmus passed through the sight lines of these columns.

   Backup: The columns are the site's primary visual monument and always accessible during opening hours. The museum has a scale model of the ancient city showing how the temple related to the full agora complex.

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4. 4 Spot the Drinking Vessels From Corinth's Wine Parties Wine · Price: moderate · Optional

   The museum's symposium equipment collection shows wine culture as daily infrastructure - not occasional indulgence - in ancient Corinth.

   Corinthian kylikes (wide, shallow two-handled drinking cups), kraters (for mixing wine with water), and oinochoai (wine jugs) are among the most technically refined pottery in the ancient Greek world. The Corinthian style - black-figure then transitioning to red-figure - was exported across the Mediterranean along with the wine itself. You are looking at the drinking infrastructure of a civilization that ran on wine mixed with water at 1:2 or 1:3 ratios, where drinking undiluted wine was a sign of barbarity. In the archaeological museum's ceramic display cases covering the Classical and Hellenistic periods, look for the kylix forms - shallow, wide-bowled cups on a stem, with two horizontal handles. These were designed for reclining symposiasts. Also look for any krater fragments showing mythological scenes - Dionysus scenes are common in Corinthian pottery. The myth and the wine were packaged together as product.

   Backup: Even if specific symposium vessels are temporarily in storage or a traveling exhibition, the museum holds thousands of ceramic fragments - ask the attendant which display includes the drinking vessel collection.

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Insider tips

• The museum collection rivals Athens

• Climb Acrocorinth for stunning views

• The Temple of Apollo columns are photogenic

• Combine with Isthmia for full day