Read & Share

WE ARE THE VOICE OF ANCIENT DIOLKOS

2010-01-21

I have started a petition for Saving and Restoring the Ancient monument of Diolkos, in Greece.

The Diolkos is a paved road built probably around 600 BC and connected with the transportation of entire fleets over the Isthmus of Corinth. Its western end was excavated between 1956 -1960 but a big part of it, which runs parallel to the modern Canal has been abandoned to the waves entering from the nearby Corinthian Gulf and to the wake of passing vessels. Walter Werner (to whom I owe my awakening to this issue) recorded a heavily traumatized monument already in 1978.

However, salvage actions were denied even when the erosion had reduced large part of this registered archaeological site in a state of demolition. Various voices of protest (for example by members of the parliament) were met with false assertions of care! In 2006, an “official” letter of the then General Secretary of the Ministry of Culture informed the Prime Minister that the waves “HAVE BY NOW BEGUN to erode the substrate of the monument”!

International ridicule coming from this petition and Justice investigations have finally induced the Ministry to some movimentation. In 2007, with information largely pressed upon them by privates, they managed to prepare a first “Master Plan” describing the monument and what is needed for its protection and restoration.

In the spring of 2009 some elementary protection work has been done at two erosion fronts but the rest of the exposed Diolkos is still deteriorating, as you can see in a recent video, at http://www.youtube.com/user/sofiagreek#p/u/0/4_5H_GGIUKk

I invite you to watch this short video and please sign the petition at

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/petition/870477005

Although the Ministry say they "will" take care of Diolkos, I feel more pressure is needed, or nothing or too little will be done...


Sofia Loverdou, freelance science journalist
Athens, Greece