Greek War of Independence sites and locations now on Google maps

By 2 years ago

An initiative by two Greeks is going to make it easier to learn and remember historic milestone events of the 1821 Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.

It is difficult sometimes to remember details about places and historic figures involved, especially when so many things took place during the decade long course of the Greek Revolution.

Battles, agreements, diplomatic background, sequence of events in the minds of many people seem like an puzzle.

But everything falls into place and makes sense, with a click on the online map “Greek Revolution 1821”.

"Last year, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the Revolution of 1821, I started looking for information to add to the dusty memories from my school years," said the creator of the internet map Christos Agathopoulos to AMNA.

"So I found the historical events of that period and recorded them on paper in chronological order," the creator continued.

"At the same time, I was inspired by a YouTube channel that deals with important historical figures and in the end of each video they show a map of the location of events and I decided to do the same," he added.

While collecting the historical facts, he realised that the volume is very large and turned to a friend of his, Harry Vadivoulis, to help him.

"We shared what I had collected up to that moment and he also found enough material," explained Agathopoulos, adding: "Then we divided the dates that everyone was responsible for ‘pinning’ them on the map."

The map was created in the form of Google Maps.

One icon on the map means that a battle took place and the Greeks won, another that the battle was won by the Ottomans, another symbolises massacres and looting, another indicates the uprising of an area and another the signing of a treaty or decree.

"Below the memo, one can see the events in chronological order," explained the 25-year-old creator.

"Clicking on the event will show someone where it happened on the map, they will read a short description, while if they want to learn more, they can open the source we quoted," he added.

The two friends met at the University of Thessaly where they studied.

The fact that today they are separated by many kilometres, did not stand in the way of their cooperation, which was cultivated due to their common love for history.

READ MORE: The moving story of the African-American philhellene who fought in the Greek War of Independence.

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Athens Bureau