Ancient harbor of Kenchreai

Corinth straddled the isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnesus and relied on two harbors. Lechaion, faced the Gulf of Corinth and served the western sea routes to Italy, Sicily, and beyond to Spain. Kenchreai, in turn, was on the Saronic Gulf and received ships from the Aegean Sea, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt. 

Kenchreai was named after Kenchrias, twin brother of Lechis, son of Peirine and Poseidon. The harbor took advantage of the natural capes that were extended with two breakwaters and horseshoe-shaped piers to form a large basin and create a separate commercial and military port. The greatest width of the harbor was 280 meters with a welcoming entrance of 120 meters wide. 

Recent excavations in the port exposed extensive warehouses, shops, and public buildings, most of them belonging to Roman times. They included a Temple to Aphrodite and Isis and an early Christian Basilica. 

Kenchreai yielded many artifacts, the most remarkable of which is a series of stained glass panels not unlike our modern stained glass windows, now in the Isthmia Museum. 

A wonderful Roman cemetery, largely unknown to the general public has been explored also. Its chamber and pit tombs cover the period from the 1^st to the 7^th century AD. Some of the tombs have kept their original painted decorations. The inside walls could be painted with architectural elements but also with mythical creatures, garlands, dolphins, ibis, herons, etc. 

The chamber tombs of Kenchreai were found inside a building that displayed a funerary inscription with the name of the tomb's owner and the dedication to his family, descendants, and sometimes to his freed slaves. Inside the tombs, niches could hold the body of the deceased or the urns in case of a cremation. These cremations took place on a pyre in a dedicated spot near the cemetery. It took a long time for the bones to burn completely, apparently at a temperature as high as 700°C. In the end, the remaining bones were removed from the ashes and placed inside the urn, which the mourners then took to the grave. 

The deceased were buried with the usual rich offerings such as gold jewelry, perfume bottles, clay figurines, marble statuettes, as well as common household utensils. 

Based on the care taken in the burial process and the decoration of the tombs leads scholars to believe that the dead belonged to the local upper class who wished to present themselves as members of a prominent society.

[Pictures from anagnostis.org]