History of ancient Greece. Thermopyllic battle

2500 years ago

When I saw the name of Thermopylae on the map, I realized that I had to call in this place. Thermopylae is a word from childhood. This is the site of the legendary battle of a small number of Spartans against a huge army of Persians. Today there are several feature films about this event. In my childhood there were books instead of films. Lines of how proud Spartans died, but did not hesitate, excited my young blood and forever absorbed into my nature.

And now - I see that some sixty kilometers from me is a historical place. And I'm going there.

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Events unfolded in 480 BC. That is, it is 2500 years ago. It's hard to imagine how it was a long time ago. Then Persia began the war against Greece. Persian king Xerxes I led his army to Greece. The Persian army was very large and consisted mostly of warriors of conquered peoples.

A huge army of Persians was supposed to pass from Thessaly to central Greece. This path passed through the Thermopilsky gorge. Here the Greeks decided to meet the enemy under the leadership of Tsar Leonid and his Spartans.

The Persians approached the gorge and camped. For four days, the Persians waited for the approach of all their forces, and then began an attack on the defenders of the gorge.

Despite the numerical superiority, the Persians could not pass a small number of defenders due to the narrowness of the gorge and the high training of the Spartan warriors.

The best Persian warriors could not defeat the defenders of Greece. As a result, deceit decided the matter. One local resident for the award led a detachment of Persians in the rear of the Spartans.

When the Spartans were surrounded, they took the last battle. All of them died. But this battle went down in history.

Of course, these are general words about those events.

Not all of this is true when it comes to details. But it is true, if you look at this question from the point of view of the Spartans' valor.

If we are talking about 300 Spartans, then this is not entirely true. For example, Herodotus estimated the army of Spartans at 5000-6000 people. The number of Persians is estimated from 200 to 300 thousand people. Some historians believe that the Persians were 60-80 thousand, which in any case is very much in comparison with the number of Greeks.

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That monument that I saw on the road is a monument to Tsar Leonid. The monument was erected in 1950.

Nearby there is another monument to the fallen wars. This is a headless statue. Symbol of the unknown of fallen wars. A naked body is a symbol of courage and courage. The raised wing is a symbol of glory and freedom. A broken wing is a symbol of loss and inability to enjoy glory.

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When we arrived at the place, we immediately saw a monument to Tsar Leonid and the Spartans. We stopped and began to inspect the place. I thought I would see the gorge, the bottleneck where the Spartans and Persians fought. But it turned out that over 2500 years the landscape has changed. The sea receded and embraced a gentle shore, forming a valley that runs along the sea. But the place where the Greek camp was preserved.

Near the monument to the fallen wars, we found a strange stream. These turned out to be thermal springs. Hot mineral water is another local attraction.

People come here to the balneological resort. Locals go here like in a bathhouse.

The earth around is saturated with salt. It all looks very unusual and interesting. While we were walking, evening came and it was necessary to arrange for the night. We decided to go closer to the sea and find some small hotel there.

Thermopylae is a historical place that I managed to see. It was very emotional.

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