Map Battle of Thermopylae

Map Battle of Thermopylae. King Xerxes, about a year before he is said to have married Jewish Queen Esther of the Bible, conquered Greece. Even with over 200,000 soldiers, he took heavy losses when he fought 300 Spartan warriors and a few hundred volunteers defending a narrow pass on a beach perhaps 100 meters wide, the length of a football field. The large army needed to take that route to Athens, further south.