The Canal of Corinth is a 6km canal. It connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland. Construction was completed in 1893, by the same team that went on to build the Canal of Suez (completed in 1869). Several rulers in antiquity dreamed of digging a cutting through the Isthmus.
The first to propose such an undertaking was the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC. The project was abandoned and Periander. Instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland portage road. It was named the Diolkos or stone carriageway, along which ships could be towed from one side of the isthmus to the other. Remnants of the Diolkos are also visible at the Western entrance of the canal.