The great rock of Acrocorinth rises nearly 600 metres above the plain and was one of the most strategically important fortresses in the ancient Mediterranean. The walk up takes about 40 minutes from the lower car park, through three successive gateways — Ottoman, Frankish, and Byzantine — each built atop earlier fortifications. At the top, ruined towers and walls give way to views that stretch across the Gulf of Corinth to the mountains of central Greece and, on a clear day, all the way to the Attic coast.
Acrocorinth
Towering ancient fortress with views across the Gulf of Corinth
A story
Within the Byzantine walls near the summit stood a famous temple to Aphrodite served, according to Strabo, by a thousand sacred prostitutes. Modern archaeologists are sceptical of the numbers, but the temple was real — its foundations are still visible — and Corinth's reputation for luxury and excess was notorious throughout the ancient world.