Marathon Battle and Marathon Race
Classical Greece except from Olympia and Delphi, means few more sites, that Athens is related to. So the city is famous for Marathon, where Persians landed and a great battle for the west was given and now the word means the famous Race of 42 kilometers that separate Athens from its plain.
The famous Greco-Persian Battle took place in 490 BC, before the also famous battle of Salamis. At Marathon Athenians gathered full military power to defend the city outside the city walls from the massive Persian empire’s army. Today the athenian military strategy is being taught to military schools around the world.
After this battle, General Miltiades whose plan prevailed, was the father of the Athenian supremacy that continued with Themistocles and finalised with Pericles, until Peloponnesian War.
Today in the area there is the Archeological space +302294055462 that you can see the tomb, constructed after the battle, to honour the 192 dead Athenian hoplites.
Marathon Race
Every November the Aunthentic Marathon takes place in Athens. While in Athens you can enjoy time walking around Plaka and shopping activities, more info about it you can find here.
Near the modern Marathon site there are some amazing beaches you can enjoy the Attica eastern coastline. The most famous beach bar is Karavi and here is how you can get there.
Marathon to Lavrio
You can also enjoy the sea at Loutsa, or get the boat for some islands to Porto Rafti as well. You can visit Lavrio and the mines that were there in antiquity.
In Lavrio there is an Archaeological Museum +302292022817 , the Mineralοgical Museum +302292026720 and neoclassical buildings around the main square.
Marathon Tomb
There are two tumuli at Marathon, Greece. One is a burial mound or “Soros” that houses the ashes of the 192 Athenians who fell during the battle. The other houses the inhumed bodies of their allies, Plataeans who fell during that same battle. The burial mound dominates the plain of Marathon, where the eponymous battle took place, along with the tumulus of the Plataeans, and a victory column erected by the Athenians to commemorate their victory over Darius‘ Persian expedition. The tumulus is encompassed in a park today.
The Athenian Tumulus stands around 40 feet (12 m) tall and was excavated in 1884 by Dimitrios Philios and then again in 1890 and 1891 by Valerios Stais. The Plataean Tumulus is smaller at around 10 feet (3.0 m), and was identified and excavated in 1970 by Prof. Marinatos, who was the Greek Inspector General of Antiquities at that time. A large layer of ash and charred bone was found in the Athenian Tumulus while multiple bodies were found inhumed in the Plataean Tumulus. The Victory Column has since collapsed and been replaced with a modern replica which matches the original both in height and in general mass.
Marathon Museum
The permanent exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Marathon presents the history of the area from the Prehistoric era until the Roman period through a display of finds that were aggregated from the Prehistoric cemeteries of Vrana and Tsepi, the tombs of the Athenians and the Plataians who fought at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC). It also puts on display finds from the Roman sanctuary of the Egyptian Gods in Brexiza (Nea Makri).
The existence of ruins in the area of Mikro Elos (Small Marsh) of Brexiza (Nea Makri) has been noted by early European travelers, who refer to the area simply as Nissi (island). In 1792 the French Consul in Athens, Fauvel, a person who hosted many of travellers and actually made antiquities trade, a common practice back then, drew the ruins of the region. The excavations revealed the complex of the Egyptian gods sanctuary and a bathhouse (balneum), as well as a cistern further to the south.
Marathon Lake
Lake Marathon or the Marathon Reservoir is a man-made water supply reservoir formed from the construction of Marathon Dam at the junction of Charadros and Varnavas Torrents near the town of Marathon, Greece. It was the primary water supply for Athens from 1931, when it became operational, until 1959. In 1959 water from Lake Yliki became available, and water from Mornos Reservoir became available in 1981.
The dam is constructed from concrete and is a gravity dam. It is unique worldwide because its external cladding of white pentelikon marble is the same marble used in construction of the Parthenon and the other buildings in the Acropolis. The dam was constructed by the American firm ULEN (which had, in a BOT type contract, the ownership of the water supply company of Athens until 1974).
It was constructed to meet the increased water demand caused by the rapid population increase in the Athens area following the huge influx of refugees from Asia Minor during and after the end of Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). The construction lasted from 1926 to 1929.
