Greco-Persian Wars: Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis

The Persians landed at the bay of Marathon, about 27 kilometres northeast of Athens, in 490 BC. The conventional date of the battle is 12 September. Herodotus records 6,400 Persian bodies counted on the battlefield. The Athenian and Plataean dead were buried on the battlefield in two tumuli.

Location precision: The pin marks the Marathon battlefield area, not the exact mound.

In late summer 480 BC, a Greek force of about 7,000 men, including an estimated 300 Spartans, marched north under Leonidas to block the pass of Thermopylae. Leonidas later dismissed most of the army and stayed with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians. In 1939 archaeologists found large numbers of Persian bronze arrowheads on Kolonos Hill. Today a bronze statue of Leonidas stands at the site.

Visitor guidance: The Leonidas Monument stands at the battlefield, with Kolonos Hill nearby.

While Leonidas held the pass, a Greek fleet fought the Persians at sea off the coast of Euboea, at the same time as the land battle at Thermopylae. The fleet had a simple task: it needed to protect the flank of the army at Thermopylae.

Location precision: The sea battle was fought off the Euboean coast; the pin marks Artemisio on Euboea.

The Persians invaded and sacked Athens in 480 BC. Buildings on the Acropolis were burned and looted, along with the Ancient Temple and practically everything else on the rock. Afterwards the Athenians built parts of the unfinished temple into the new northern wall, where they served as a war memorial.

Visitor guidance: The northern wall can be seen on the walk around the rock.

Under Themistocles, the Greek alliance faced the Achaemenid fleet of King Xerxes at Salamis. The Allied fleet had rowed from Artemisium to Salamis to help with the final evacuation of Athens. In the battle the first line of Persian ships was pushed back and became fouled in their own second and third lines. In 2017 archaeologists announced they had found the Greek anchorage on the island, at Ambelaki-Kynosaurus.

Location precision: The battle was fought in the straits; the pin marks Salamis island.

Plataea was the final land battle of the second Persian invasion, fought in August 479 BC near the city of Plataea in Boeotia. The Persian army had camped behind the Asopos river. In one account a soldier, Aeimnestus, hurled a stone at the Persian commander Mardonius and killed him.

Location precision: The battlefield lies near the ancient city; the pin marks Plataea.