Histories

+Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium is where the wide Thracian sea contracts until the passage between the island of Sciathus and the mainland of Nomos Magnisias [22.75,39.25] (department), Thessaly, Greece, EuropeMagnesia is but narrow. This strait leads next to +Artemisium [23.2417,39.0083] (Perseus) Artemisium, which is a beach on the coast of +Euboea [23.833,38.566] (island), Nomos Evvoias, Central Greece and Euboea, Greece, Europe Euboea, on which stands a temple of Artemis.

The pass through +Trachis [22.55,38.8] (Perseus) Trachis into Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas [*](Greece [22,39] (nation), EuropeHellas in the narrower sense, not including +Thessaly [22.25,39.5] (region), Greece, Europe Thessaly.) is fifty feet wide at its narrowest point. It is not here, however, but elsewhere that the way is narrowest, namely, in front of +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae and behind it; at Alpeni, which lies behind, it is only the breadth of a cart-way, and it is the same at the Phoenix stream, near the town of Anthele.

To the west[*](Herodotus' points of the compass are wrong throughout in his description of +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae; the road runs east and west, not north and south as he supposes; so “west” here should be “south” and “east” “north.” “In front” and “behind” are equivalent to “west” and “east” respectively.) of +Thermopylae [22.5583,38.8] (Perseus) Thermopylae rises a high mountain, inaccessible and precipitous, a spur of Oeta; to the east of the road there is nothing but marshes and sea. In this pass are warm springs for bathing, called the Basins by the people of the country, and an altar of Heracles stands nearby. Across this entry a wall had been built, and formerly there was a gate in it.