Marathon

On our escape from Athens we stopped by Marathon. This is the site where the Athenians fought off the Persian invasion under Darius. This was more of a raid than an invasion, but they'd undoubtedly have taken Athens if they'd had the chance. Marathon is about an hours drive from Athens and I can't imagine walking that in a day as they apparently did. That's supposedly where running the marathon comes from when the Athenian messenger Philippides ran back to Athens to bring news of the victory. He promptly gave the message then dropped dead of exhaustion. Of course, another legend has it that he was running to Sparta to get help for the Athenians and that's where the marathon started. The Spartans never showed up because they were in the middle of one of their festivals. Yeah, you didn't see that part in 300. It does explain why they felt they had something to prove the second time the Persians showed up. Couldn't let the Athenians get all the credit this time. Anyway, the Persians had formed up on the beach haven gotten off their boats when the Athenian army led by Miltiades showed up. The Athenians formed their phalanx while the Persians prepared to receive them. This is the strange but because the Athenians apparently ran the last half mile to attack the Persian army. It's like something out of a Hollywood epic and exactly the kind of thing you expect never to happen in real life. But here it did. At any rate the Athenians cleaned the floor with the Persians and sent them scuttling off back home. Ten years later the Persians would try again under Xerxes in their larger and more famous invasion.

We got out of Athens just in time. Protests had already started when we were there but the riots didn't kick off until the day after we left. The nick of time. Driving through Athens is a wholly different situation from getting a bus from the Athenian outskirts. Athens is a nightmare for drivers and I felt bad that Diana had to do all the driving. If you go and you have the option definitely get more than one driver. Nobody obeys traffic laws in Greece and this makes it a terror to drive there. Even walking around the city is filled with perils for those who are not careful, Since I'd been before I let my friends tour the Acropolis while I went to the museum. This museum is definitely worth going to, even though it's in a dreadful part of town. But then again what isn't? It has all of the main artifacts found that haven't been taken out of the country. There is a lot of stuff here. Too much actually. I was so fed up with it by the end that I rushed through the last bits. If you get a chance you should definitely go there.

This is the tumulus where they buried the soldiers who died in the battle. It's a nice looking park and I wish we could have gone in but it closed early on a Friday so we were stuck. This is the view of the tumulus from outside the park.

Here's the road that circles the park. Marathon seems a pretty rural area. The local buildings were very agricultural and had probably been there for centuries. The sea has moved on unfortunately, so now these sites lie about a mile or so inland. Which kinda ruins the point. I wanted to go see the shore but nobody else wanted to. We were running somewhat late so it wasn't a bad idea to get going.

Now this was a disappointment. This is the monument that the Athenians set up to mark the site of the battle. Or at least, it's a reproduction of it without the statue on top. It's located in a schoolyard which looks like it's been there since the 1800s and probably has. It's a small one or two-room building with an old fashioned bell. This is it for the park by the way. This little clearing here represents everything. It must have been open ground 2500 years ago but now it's covered with shrubs and trees.

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38° 7'4.23"N, 23°58'41.68"E