The island of Salamina is less than a kilometer from the mainland at many points along both its northeastern and northwestern coasts. As such, the northern part of the island is very close to Athens (to the east), Elefsina (to the north) and Megara (to the west).
In ancient times, the island was called Salamis — a name certainly most famous today for the naval battle which took place mainly in the narrow straits between the northeastern part of the island and the mainland. In 480 BCE, having overcome the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae and subsequently sacked and occupied Athens, the Persian king Xerxes turned his attention to the surviving Athenian forces and their Greek allies, who were gathering on Salamis. He launched the massive fleet from the ancient harbor at Faliro (just south of Athens, 10 km east of Salamis) and ordered it to attack the Greek forces. The Greek fleet launched from the harbor in what is now the village of Spithari. Watching from an observation post in the hills above the modern town of Perama on the mainland, Xerxes looked on helplessly as the seagoing peoples of his empire — many of them Greeks themselves from Persian-ruled cities in Asia Minor like Miletus — were routed in the strait below, unable to maneuver or take advantage of their superior numbers in the narrow channel. Xerxes then departed Greece but left some land forces behind, which were defeated at Plataea the following year, finally putting an end to the Persian invasions which had started at Marathon a decade earlier.
But it wasn’t only inhabited when the Athenians and other Greeks gathered there during the Persian invasion. There were ancient settlements at various sites around the island, including in the area in the northeast of the island. Most of the ancient ruins that can be seen in this area are in Spithari, which is about 2 km south of the modern port. This was the ancient harbor from which the Greek fleet launched to join battle against Xerxes’s fleet. The harbor is clearly more silted than it must have been in ancient times, making it now useless as a harbor except perhaps for the tiniest of vessels, but some of the structures of the ancient harbor are still visible poking out of the silt.
There are several fields in the area just north of the ancient harbor where the ruins of many ancient structures are visible.
Tips for the Visitor
Despite the extreme proximity of the island to the mainland in so many places, there is no bridge, so the only way to get there is by a very short ferry ride. Coming from Athens, the most popular crossing is done from Perama, which you can reach by bus and has hourly ferries taking you the 3 km across the strait (where the Battle of Salamis was waged) to the island’s main port on the other side.
There are no organized archaeological sites in the area covered by this article, so the rockpiles mentioned and pictured here can be seen anytime without any ticket purchase.
There is an archaeological museum in the island’s main town of Salamina, which is a little over 3 km west of the main port.
Location Map