Euripus Strait

Geographical location

The Euripos (Greek Εύριπος, Evripos ) is the narrowest strait in the world and is at its narrowest point is only 40 meters wide. Through him the island of Evia is separated from the Greek mainland and divided the capital of Evia, Chalkida, in two parts.

A feature of these straits are their unusual tidal currents. It is important to distinguish between regular currents that change their direction regularly four times a day, and irregular currents, up to twelve times per day during a waxing moon change the direction.

From the Straits to Euripus derives, in Roman architecture the term for a long, narrow pool of water.

History

The names gift of Euripos goes back to a mythological story: Euripos, an ancient explorer who lived in Chalkida, wanted to go to the mystery of the changing directions of flow to the bottom and drowned during one of his experiments, the channel at its narrowest and at the same time most dangerous place to swim through.

At this point, the strait is connected to the mainland for centuries by a bridge. Since 1962, the channel can be crossed at this point by a bridge that opens when needed ( the passage of larger ships ): First, the side railings are folded inward. Subsequently, the entire bridge is a small piece lowered down and eventually retracted horizontally to the left and right.

In 1992 also a multi-lane suspension bridge over the Euripus channel was completed, contributing to the significant improvement of the traffic. Before the opening of the new bridge there was only the small bridge at the narrowest point of the strait that - Located in the middle of the city of Chalkida - constituted the main link between the island of Euboea and the mainland of Attica.