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I was looking on google earth and I saw a placemark someone made near thermopylae saying that this could be the pass. I think this might actually be true. But was thermopylae fought on a cliff overlooking the aegean, or in a valley?
Dan/Anastasios of Sparta/Gaius Statilius Rusticus/ Gaius Germanicus Augustus Flavius Romulus Caesar Tiberius Caelius (Imperator :twisted: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":twisted:" title="Twisted Evil" />:twisted: )
Yachts and Saabs are for whimps!
Real men have Triremes and Chariots 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8) !
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Ok from what I read I believe it was on a cliff.
Dan/Anastasios of Sparta/Gaius Statilius Rusticus/ Gaius Germanicus Augustus Flavius Romulus Caesar Tiberius Caelius (Imperator :twisted: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":twisted:" title="Twisted Evil" />:twisted: )
Yachts and Saabs are for whimps!
Real men have Triremes and Chariots 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8) !
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I think the reason for our young friend's question is that he has in mind a particular scene in "300" where the Spartans push Persians over a cliff ( I haven't seen it BTW, only parodies, which did raise a chuckle.....)
As you can see, Dan, no cliffs on the battlefield ! The Greeks formed a line between the cliffs and the sea ! (see Jona's second, modified photo.)
Jona's pictures of the site show all, and compare very well with similar ones, together with a model and photos of the route the Immotals took, in Peter Connolly's 'Greece and Rome at War'.(An excellent book by the way - put it on your Christmas or Birthday 'wish list'
) )
The wider pass nowadays ( see first photo) is due to an accumulation of silt from the River Asopus over the years, the river is behind the 'spur' in the distance.
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
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Actually I got the cliff Idea from the history channel, so now I take it that thermopylae was basically a shore, right next to mountains.
Dan/Anastasios of Sparta/Gaius Statilius Rusticus/ Gaius Germanicus Augustus Flavius Romulus Caesar Tiberius Caelius (Imperator :twisted: <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_twisted.gif" alt=":twisted:" title="Twisted Evil" />:twisted: )
Yachts and Saabs are for whimps!
Real men have Triremes and Chariots 8) <img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" />8) !
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You should check this out:
Thermopylae with overlaid map
Click on the 'VIEW IN GOOGLE EARTH' icon to automatically load it in GE, for those of you who don't know.
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!