It was here, for about 800 years from 582 BC, that the Panhellenic Isthmian Games were staged annually in the years preceding and following the ancient Olympics. Today, the title of the Isthmian Football League, comprising teams in and around London, is a nod to the sporting spirit of those times.
Lord Byron, the unlikely hero of the struggle for Hellenic independence from Ottoman rule, successfully united the rival Greek factions to the east and west of the isthmus (under Prince Aléxandros Mavrokordátos, to the west, and Demetrios Ypsilantis, to the east) to pave the way for the first Hellenic Republic, whose capital was at nearby Nafplio, in 1827.