Europe | Sun, sea and naval history

Why tourists shun Salamis, site of a great sea-battle

2,500 years ago a small Greek fleet thrashed a huge Persian one. Holidaymakers don’t care

PEOPLE ON SALAMIS hoped that their hilly island would be on the tourist map this year. It is the 2,500th anniversary of one of the greatest naval battles of the ancient world. In the early autumn of 480BC, in the strait between Salamis and the mainland, a few hundred Greek triremes (warships with three banks of oars and bronze battering-rams) defeated a much larger Persian armada.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Selling Salamis”

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