Twenty kilometres south of Lamia on the E75, the pass of Thermopylae is one of the most resonant sites in European history. In 480 BC, Leonidas of Sparta led a force of around 7,000 Greeks — including his 300 Spartans — in holding a Persian army of perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 men for three days. When a local shepherd named Ephialtes showed the Persians a mountain track that outflanked the position, Leonidas sent most of the Greek forces away and held the pass with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, and 400 Thebans until they were overwhelmed.
The bronze statue of Leonidas stands on a low plinth beside the main road, fierce and slightly too heroic for the quiet, industrial landscape around it. Across the road, Kolonos Hill is the knoll where the last of the Spartans made their final stand; a simple stone monument marks the site with the famous epitaph composed by Simonides — in the original Greek: "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, that here, obedient to their laws, we lie." The hot springs that give the pass its name (Thermopylae means "hot gates") still flow a short distance away and remain open for bathing.