Acrocorinth

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Map of the remains of Acrocorinth
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Map of the remains of Acrocorinth

Acrocorinth (Gr. Ακροκόρινθος) is a monolithic rock overseeing the ancient city of Corinth, Greece. It used to be the city's ancient and later, medieval acropolis. Already an easily defendable position due to its geomorphology, it was further heavily fortified during the Byzantine Empire as it became the seat of the strategos of the Thema of Hellas. Acrocorinth's fortress was used as the last defending line in southern Greece repelling foes from entering the Peloponnesian peninsula. Three walls formed the man-made defense of the hill. The site was home to a temple to Aphrodite, a church, and a mosque. The American School began excavations on it in 1929. Currently, it is one of the most important medieval castle sites of Greece.

In a Corinthian myth related in the second century CE to Pausanias (Description of Greece ii. 1.6 and 4.7), Briareus, one of the Hecatonchires, was the arbitrator in a dispute between Poseidon and Helios, between sea and sun: he adjudged the Isthmus of Corinth to belong to Poseidon and the acropolis of Corinth (Acrocorinth) sacred to Helios.