ISTHMUS

, in Geography, a narrow neck or slip of land, that joins two other large tracts together, and separating two seas, or two parts of the same sea.

The most remarkable Isthmuses are, that of Panama or Straits of Darien, joining north and south America; that of Suez, which connects Asia and Africa; that of Corinth, or Peloponnesus, in the Morea; that of Crim Tartary, otherwise called Taurica Chersonesus; that of the peninsula Romania and Erisso, or the Isthmus of the Thracian Chersonesus, 12 furlongs broad, and which Xerxes undertook to cut through. The Ancients had several designs of cutting the Isthmus of Corinth, which is a rocky hillock, about 10 miles over; but without essect, the invention of sluices being not then known. There have also been attempts for cutting the Isthmus of Suez, to make a communication between the Mediterranean and the Red-sea.