Full-day Tour: Marathon And Salamis With Military Expert

From our vantage point on mount Aegaleo, where the Persian king Xerxes set up his throne to watch the battle, overlooking the entire bay of Salamis, the naval battle of 480 BC is explained in vivid and clear operational terms. Fleet compositions, command structures, ship maneuvers, sea currents, wind patterns and tactical decision-making are explained clearly, with special emphasis on how the Greek admiral deliberately drew the numerically superior Persian fleet into confined waters where numbers became a liability.

We then make the ferry crossing across the bay to the island of Salamis. Standing above the water, right in the middle where the action took place, it is easy to visualize the chaos of the battle, ramming ships and war cries echoing between the shores. On the island we visit the monument for the battle, from where the Athenian citizens watched their sons and fathers fight the Persians in the bay right infront of them.

At Marathon, you walk across the wide coastal plain where, in 490 BC, Athenian hoplites defeated a vastly superior Persian force. Accompanied by our expert military advisors, the story of the war unfolds as the battle is reconstructed in detail, hour by hour: terrain, deployments, formations, command decisions and the decisive moments that turned the tide. Standing on the ground itself, the setting remains as powerful today as it was 2,500 years ago in a way no book or documentary can replicate. You visit the museum, the Trophy and the Athenian Tomb where the 192 fallen Athenians lay.