In about 42km to the northeast of Athens spreads the plain of Marathon, where the Greeks defeated the Persians in 490 BC during their first expedition against Greece. Now in the battlefield there is the “Marathon Tomb”, a mound where the 192 Athenians who fell in the battle were buried. Nearby there is an archaeological museum which houses among others the “grave offerings” of the fallen Athenians.
At the modern town of Marathon there is the starting line of the classical Marathon Race held every year in Athens. A road from Marathon leads to Marathon Lake, one of the water reservoirs of Greater Athens with a dam wall 285m long faced with marble.