Battle of Thermopylae

The pass of Thermopylae in central Greece, looking along the mountain wall where Leonidas and his Greek allies held off the Persian army in 480 BC. The view needs one correction in your head: in ancient times the sea came up to roughly where the modern road runs, leaving only a narrow strip between cliff and water. Deposits from the Spercheios River have since built a plain about five kilometers wide, so the "hot gates" now open onto flat land. Near the road, a 1955 bronze of Leonidas stands below the small hill of Kolonos, where the last defenders are thought to have made their stand.