Acrokorinthos is a steep rock (seropagus) of 575 meters that dominates near the plain of Corinth. Ancient Corinth was built at its northern foot. Due to its morphology, it was used from ancient times as a watchtower that emerged as a castle-fortress (Acropolis), from which any raid from Central Greece or from the sea was supervised. In the language of the fighters of 1821 it was called Akrokorthos and Corinth Korthos.
Castle description
The entrance to the castle of Acrokorinthos is from the meridian (west) side, invisible from the city, to which leads a single uphill alley, in some parts of which is paved and in some carved into the rock. The wall and the gates of the castle are on three levels, the lower, the middle and the upper, where the main castle is. The first vaulted and more imposing gate is located on the lower level on either side of which a small wall continues. In front of this gate in the Middle Ages there was a large defensive moat over which a movable bridge was carried. Almost everything around this gate has collapsed. After about 100 meters NE and uphill is the second vaulted gate also with a larger wall than the first. From this the uphill road continues to a large helix where it ends at the upper level the vaulted gate of the main castle which has a complete wall with intermediate towers covering the entire plateau, distinguished in west and east. The northern wall has other sub-small vaulted gates more for watchtower or escape use than passage.
Within this area there are today only ruins of older towers and various buildings (such as the temple of the Prophet Elias), underground passages, wells, warehouses and tanks for construction and completion or reconstruction, etc. of which many generations of people worked. From the last Venetian occupation during the reign of Francis Morosini, some cannons are carried, one of which was built in 1670. The most remarkable of this area is the so-called "Dragonera" water tank, which is the ancient Pyrenees, according to Pausanias. The view from this level is extremely magnificent covering the Gulf of Patras and Corinth, the southern coasts of Central Greece, the entire western part of the Saronic Gulf, Salamis and Aegina.
The area is a protected Natura 2000 habitat with an area of 6.02 sq. Km. [2] [3] [4] The vegetation of the hill includes shrubs, stony shrubs and phrygana. The protected species of flora include Stachys the rod-shaped and Fritilaria the Greek. The protected species of fauna include: the gouster of the Peloponnese, green toads, idiomori, spitofida, avlefari, golden jackals, convex fingers, tranosaurs, blinds, agiofida, tiflinos, myotides, rhinolofes, rinolofoi
