Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for destination: "LECHEON Ancient port CORINTHIA".
The port of Corinth on the Corinthian Gulf ca. 3 km N of the ancient city and joined to it by double long walls and a broad paved avenue. Established by at least the time of the Kypselid tyrants and a thriving port in the Roman period, it was one of the largest harbors in Greece, occupying an area of ca. 10 hectares. Two outer harbors protected by moles lay on the shore and communicated with a spacious inner harbor through a narrow channel bordered by stone jetties. In the middle of the W half of the inner harbor stands the masonry core of a Roman monument. The prominent mounds of sand near the shore were probably heaped up by Roman engineers when clearing out the inner harbor. At the town of Lechaion there were ship-sheds (Xen. Hell. 4.4.12) and Sanctuaries of Poseidon (Paus. 2.2.3) and Aphrodite (Plut. Mor. 146 D). The site has never been excavated and our best evidence for its ancient buildings is a coin of Corinth under Caracalla. A small Classical cemetery and a Roman villa have been excavated to the S of the ancient harbor.
R. Stroud, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 1 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Total results on 20/4/2001: 48 for Lechaeum, 18 for Lechaion, 1 for Lechaean.
to Lechaion, Lecheae, Lecheum. The port on the Corinthian gulf connected with the city by means of the Long Walls, 12 stadia in length. already mentioned. (Strab. viii. p. 380; Xen. Hell. iv. 4. 17) The Long Walls ran nearly due north, so that the wall on the right hand was called the eastern, and the one on the left hand the western or Sicyonian. The space between them must have been considerable; since, as we have already seen, there was sufficient space for an army to be drawn up for battle. The flat country between Corinth and Lechaeum is composed only of the sand washed up by the sea; and the port must have been originally artificial (chostos limen, Dionys.), though it was no doubt rendered both spacious and convenient by the wealthy Corinthians. The site of the port is now indicated by a lagoon, surrounded by hillocks of sand. Lechaeum was the chief station of the Corinthian ships of war; and during the occupation of Corinth by the Macedonians, it was one of the stations of the royal fleet. It was also the emporium of the traffic with the western parts of Greece, and with Italy and Sicily. The proximity of Lechaeum to Corinth prevented it from becoming an important town like Peiraeeus. The only public buildings in the place mentioned by Pausanias (ii. 2. § 3) was a temple of Poseidon, who is hence called Lechaeus by Callimachus. (Del. 271.) The temple of the Olympian Zeus was probably situated upon the low ground between Corinth and the shore of Lechaeum. (Paus. iii. 9. § 2; Theophr. Cans. Plant. v. 14.)
This extract is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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