The Diolkos, the famous paved road constructed around 600 BC has been called the world’s first railway. It was an engineering feat, used to transport ships by land over the Isthmus of Corinth, Greece. Thucydides, in his account of the Peloponnesian Wars (late 5th c. BC) mentions Diolkos, as it was used to haul entire war fleets from the Corinthian to the Saronic Gulf… Centuries later, Octavian also used this route to trasport ships after the battle of Actium …
Diolkos is rather a forerunner of the tramway. Part of its excavated remains bear the grooves made by the wheels of the trolleys onto which the ships were placed and transported. There is also a part of the monument where one can clearly see that ruts had been cut into the stone, at a distance of 1,50m between them.
Although unique in its kind and rich in history, the Diolkos has never been protected since the time of excavation (~1960), progressively crumbling into the water at its western end. In an effort to save and restore the defenceless structure, we have created an international petition at
www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/870477005
We invite you to sign and help preserve this historical monument.
Sofia Loverdou – freelance science journalist
Yiannis Balafoutas – Retired teacher, writer
More information and images at www.greece.org:8080/opencms/opencms/HEC_Projects/DIOLKOS/
[Note: the part of the monument with the more explicitly “tramway” features is the last image in the gallery section. Today, this part is again covered]