Xerxes Canal

The Xerxes Canal (Greek: Διώρυγα του Ξέρξη) was a navigable canal through the base of the Mount Athos peninsula in Chalkidiki, northern Greece, built by king Xerxes I of Persia in the 5th century BCE. It is one of the few monuments left by the Persian Empire in Europe.

The canal is located near the village of Nea Roda in the Athos peninsula. Starting to the east of Nea Roda on the north coast it follows a fairly straight south-westerly direction towards the south coast where it ends west of the village Tripiti. The canal is completely covered by sediments, but its outline is visible from air photos, and has been detected by several surveys. The total length of the canal was two km, its width was 30 meters, and it was three meters deep, enough for a trireme to pass.

According to the Histories of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus, which recounts the events of the Greco-Persian Wars, the Persian commander Mardonios, in 492 BCE, lost a great part of his fleet, 300 ships and 20,000 men, in a storm going around the cliffs of the Athos peninsula, during the First Persian invasion of Greece.

Xerxes, in preparation for the Second Persian invasion of Greece, in 483 BCE ordered a channel built through the Athos isthmus in order to avoid falling prey to the same catastrophe. Herodotus speculates that pride also was a motivating factor:

As far as I can judge by conjecture, Xerxes gave the command for this digging out of pride, wishing to display his power and leave a memorial; with no trouble they could have drawn their ships across the isthmus, yet he ordered them to dig a canal from sea to sea, wide enough to float two triremes rowed abreast.

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