Here lies the actual battlefield of Thermopylae, where flowers still persist, over which the enormously big Persian army of one million seven thousand Persian men with all their military equipment had to pass.
For two days the Spartans held a line against them – only a few dozen yards long, between the steep hillside and the sea. Constricting the battlefield, they prevented the Persians from using the vastness of their army and its resources and imposed heavy casualties.
As the battle grew fierce, here was the only area where the Spartans could build two walls where they blocked themselves inside.
Here was the last stand of their resistance, the last people who were killed, were killed here.
At the top of the hill lies the plain all around, the flat area. That was the sea. The hill was a peninsula, connected with another hill, with a little valley. The pass came from the north at the foot of the mountain and entered to the valley, the road. The Spartans blocked the road, a little bit deeper than where we see it today. So here you have the real place and the real topography of the battle. On this battlefield the Spartans fought to the death.
Here lies the Spartan grave.
“Hey you stranger, announce to the people of Laconice (Λακωνική, Laconia – the area of Sparta ) that we are here buried persuaded to their words – their law.”
The two walls on the hill were built, but there was also another stand built a little bit further, closer to the springs (but that was lost since the people who were coming from the mountain retreated there.)
Here we see the creek and the springs of Thermopylae.
