Corinth,
Corinth, a little more than an hour from Athens, was more important than Athens in the 7th and 6th centuries BC and remained one of the richest Greek cities throughout its existence because it controlled the Isthmus, a strip of land about 3.5 miles wide that connects the Greek mainland to the Peloponnesus. Otherwise, Greece is split in half by narrow straits.
Ships were especially important to trade and commerce in antiquity and sailing from Italy and the western Mediterranean to Greece and Asia Minor (Turkey) was dangerous when it meant sailing around the southern tip of Greece (Peloponnesus) where pirates lurked and the weather was unpredictable. Greek engineers in the 7th century created a method of hauling ships across a land road (diolkos) from one side of the narrow straits to the other, for a price, allowing ships much quicker and safer access across the Mediterranean. The tolls Corinth charged made it fabulous wealthy and, as a port city, famous for debauchery.
Not much of ancient Corinth survives from the time of Socrates and Plato thanks to the Romans, who leveled the city in 146 BC as a warning to Greeks everywhere to stop making trouble for their new overlords. The video below (5:15) shows the ancient city as it looks today, talks about its prosperity, destruction, and recovery from utter ruin, and why Paul went there to preach a new message.
This American School in Athens website nicely complement the one above and provides an interesting timeline of Corinth from antiquity to modern times
Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth (Website Link) - Most important is this website from the Archaeological Museum of Ancient Corinth. It is worth perusing the digital collections (Website Link) before we go there. In particular, look at the links for the following:
