Athens → Sparta

246 km · 7 postcards

Pheidippides' run. Out through Elefsina and Corinth, over the Arcadian hills to Sparta.

The road as your marker sees it. Dots below mark the postcards.

Along the way

km 20
Elefsina
Ancient Eleusis, home of the Mysteries. The first town out of Athens on the Sacred Way.
Photo: Geraki, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
km 42
Megara
Old rival of Athens, on the isthmus road with the Saronic gulf below.
Photo: Alexandros Georgiou, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0
km 80
Corinth
Across the canal and into the Peloponnese. Acrocorinth watches from above.
Photo: Artemco, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
km 110
Nemea
Wine country and the site of the Nemean Games. The road starts to climb.
Photo: Michael F. Mehnert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
km 150
Argos
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Europe, under its castle hill.
Photo: George E. Koronaios, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0
km 200
Tegea
The Arcadian plateau. Cold nights and the last climb before the descent to Laconia.
Photo: Gregor Hagedorn, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
km 246
Sparta
The statue of Leonidas marks the finish, as it does for the Spartathlon.
Photo: macrolepis, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0