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Kolonos Hill

Coordinates: 38°47′46″N 22°32′21″E / 38.795981°N 22.539053°E / 38.795981; 22.539053
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38°47′46″N 22°32′21″E / 38.795981°N 22.539053°E / 38.795981; 22.539053

Commemorative stone with Simonides' epigram

Kolonos Hill (/kəˈlnɒs/; Greek: Λόφος Κολωνού) is a hill in Central Greece. It is located in the narrow coastal passage known as Thermopylae, and is near the city of Lamia.

History

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The hill is best known as the site of the final stand of the 300 Spartans during the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC.[1] In 1939, Spyridon Marinatos, a Greek archaeologist found large numbers of Persian arrows around the hill, which changed the hitherto accepted identification of the site where the Greeks had fallen, slain by Persian arrows.[1][2]

A commemorative stone was placed on the site in antiquity, but the original stone has not survived. In 1955, a new stone was erected, with Simonides's epigram engraved on it.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Crawford, Osbert Guy Stanhope (1955). Said and Done: The Autobiography of an Archaeologist. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, p. 302
  2. ^ "Thermopylae". Retrieved 1 May 2014.
  3. ^ Herodotus VII, 228