Kate: Corinth

I really didn’t know what to expect before our trip to the ancient city of Corinth.  I knew it was going to be more intact than the ancient parts of Athens, but I didn’t realize how much of the city was actually still visible.  When we arrived, I was pleasantly surprised by all that we could see!  The bus pulled up and we could all see the Temple of Apollo right away, with many of its columns still fairly well preserved.  We were able to get a good sense of how an ancient city would have actually been set up, as the streets and foundations of old buildings are still relatively intact.  Because the modern city of Corinth was built further away from the ancient city, we were able to walk through the streets of the city and see what it was like after the ancient Greek city was rebuilt by the Romans.  There were ancient Roman roads with long foundations of buildings where we could clearly see the separations between what may have been shops or other public areas in town.  By being able to see the way the city was arranged, we can get a sense of how daily life was during that time.  We could still see a large platform where the leader of the city would have stood to address issues or concerns raised by the citizens of Corinth, called a bema.  We could also get a sense of how crowded the city would have been and how much of a lack of privacy people had compared to today, as everything was built so close together.  We can even still see the area where the public toilets were, all in a row, in the middle of town.  It was definitely helpful to have this visual of what an ancient city would have actually looked like.

After walking around ancient Corinth, we took the bus up the mountain and hiked up to Acro-Corinth, which was the fortress overlooking the city and providing protection for it.  It was a fairly steep hike, which was made all the more interesting when it began to downpour on us!  We tried to wait out the rain under a tree, but after realizing it wasn’t letting up any time soon, we decided to continue on to the top.  We all made it up and got to see the beautiful views of both ancient and modern Corinth, and getting completely drenched made it even more of an adventure.  It made me appreciate how hard people in ancient times had to work; I can’t imagine having to make that hike, rain or shine, carrying materials to construct buildings.  After we quickly took our pictures at the top, we all headed down back to the bus.  Slowly but surely, as the hill was muddy and the rocks were very slippery, we all made it back on the bus and miraculously, no one slipped and fell along the way!