Thermopylae - thur'MAH-puh-ly', thuhr-MOP-uh-lee' (Ancient & Katharevousa Greek Θερμοπύλαι, Demotic Θερμοπύλες) is a mountain pass in Greece. The name, roughly translated means, "hot gateway", named for several natural hot water springs there.

The pass runs from Locris into Thessaly between Mount Oeta and the sea (Maliac Gulf). It is a near-mandatory passage in the main north-south road of Greece and for this reason has been the site of several battles. The location is primarily known for the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC in which an overmatched Greek force held off advancing Persians under Xerxes, and the term since has been used to reference heroic resistance against a more powerful enemyOED entry for Thermopylae.. Two other famous battles took place at the pass. In 279 BC Brennus and the Gauls were checked for several months by a Greek army under the Athenian Calippus, and in 191 BC Antiochus III the Great of Syria attempted in vain to hold the pass against the Romans under Manius Acilius Glabrio. Less famous is the confrontation of 353 BC/352 BC during the Third sacred War when 5,000 Athenian hoplites and 400 horsemen denied passage to the forces of Philip II of Macedon and the battle of 267 AD when the Heruli defeated the Greek force that tried to stop them.

In the time of Leonidas in 480 BC the pass was a narrow track (probably about 14 yards wide) under the cliff. In modern times the deposits of the Spercheius river have widened it to a breadth of 1 to 3 miles broad. The short part of the path has thus migrated to the East so the battle of Sprercheius in 10th century AD between the forces of Samuil of Bulgaria and the Byzantine general Nicephorus Ouranus took place more to the north, while the 1821 revolution battles of the bridge of Alamana and the Hani of Gravia while very close did not take place on Thermopylae. In 1941 during World War II the ANZAC forces delayed the invading German forces in the area enough to allow the evacuation of the British expeditionary force to Greece. This conflict also became known as the battle of Thermopylae, probably because the two sides were aware only of the name of this site in the entire Phthiotis region. Such was the fame of Thermopylae that the sabotage of the Gorgopotamos bridge in 1942 was referred in German documents of the era as "the recent sabotage near Thermopylae".

A main highway now splits the pass, with a modern-day monument of Leonidas on the east side of the highway. It is directly across the road from the hill where Simonides' epitaph is engraved in stone at the top. Thermopylae is part of the infamous "horseshoe of Maliakos" also known as the "horseshoe of death": it is the narrowest part of the highway connecting the north and the south of Greece, it has many turns and has been the site of many vehicular accidents.

The hot springs from which the pass derived its name still exist close to the foot of the hill.

See also

• Thermopylae (clipper)

Note