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The Corinth Canal is a canal that connects the Gulf of Corinth with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnesian peninsula from the Greek mainland and therefore effectively making the former an island. The canal is 6.3 kilometre in length and was built between 1881 and 1893.

[…]
It saves the 400 kilometres long journey around the Peloponnesus for smaller ships, but since it is only 21 metres wide it is too narrow for modern ocean freighters.

The canal was cut through heavily faulted sedimentary rock in an active seismic zone. Between 1893 and 1940, it was closed a total of four years for maintenance and to stabilize the walls. In 1923 alone, 41,000 cubic meters of material fell into the canal, which required two years to clear it out

(article from Wikipedia)

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