Underwater ancient harbour excavated west of Corinth

A total of 2,750 square metres of submerged ancient port foundations were revealed and recorded west of modern Corinth, at the Ancient Lechaion harbour, the Culture ministry announced on Thursday,30/10/2014 when it reported on the results of the 2013-2014 excavation season.

The Lechaion Harbour Project involves the Underwater Antiquities Ephorate of the ministry, the SAXO Institute (University of Copenhagen) and the Danish Institute in Athens.

This season's work showed that the ancient harbour ran 911 metres along the modern Corinth Gulf coastline and the entrance channel to the port lay on the harbour's eastern part. The channel is 8.9 metres wide while a western and a middle mole were also found west of it.

At the entrance channel, eight caissons - or watertight retaining structures - were found, filled with small and medium-sized pebbles mixed with mortar made for marine structures. These unique structures, found nowhere else in Greece, point to plans to expand the port by adding another mole.

The excavators worked with the University of Patras on geologic research using what the latter call a "3D parametric sub-bottom profiler", an invention that will process the data to give a detailed map of the stratigraphy in the area, giving a sense of the coastal development throughout time. It may also reveal still-buried sections of the harbour or submerged objects.

The port played a pivotal role in Corinthian history, as it was located about 3 km west of Ancient Corinth and faced the West with its busy sea routes.

Research has been funded in 2014 by the Augustinus Foundation of Denmark and supervised by Dr. Dimitris Kourkoumelis and Dr. Bjorn Loven.