Saronic Gulf

Between Attica and the Peloponnese lies the Saronic Gulf, home to Salamis and Aegina. In 480 BC a Greek fleet defeated the Persians near Salamis, in one of the great naval battles of antiquity. Aegina, once a maritime rival of Athens, later suffered from warfare across the same waters: in 1537 the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa captured its fortified settlement of Paliachora, killing or enslaving many inhabitants.