Qualla: Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:30 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges: Introduction https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges/ Photo credit Alfred C. Weatherstone, Public domain. When the first set of bridges blew apart in a storm before his army arrived, Xerxes ordered the engineers responsible to be beheaded. Then, according to Herodotus, he had the strait itself whipped three hundred times with iron lashes, branded with red-hot irons, and bound in chains thrown into the water while his soldiers shouted at the waves. It is one of the most theatrical anecdotes in ancient history, and modern historians suspect Herodotus dressed it up. What is harder to dispute is what came next: a second pair of bridges, built from 674 lashed-together warships across the narrows between Abydos and Sestos, carrying the Persian army from Asia into Europe over seven days and seven nights in the spring of 480 BC.

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Image: Alfred C. Weatherstone | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/sx4u-xerxes-pontoon-bridges-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges: The Engineering https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges/ Photo credit Alfred C. Weatherstone, Public domain. The two bridges were a couple of kilometers long, threaded across one of the most current-driven straits in the known world. Three hundred and sixty ships made up the northeasterly span; another three hundred and fourteen formed the southwesterly. Mostly penteconters — fifty-oare...

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Image: Alfred C. Weatherstone | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/sx4u-xerxes-pontoon-bridges-the-engineering.mp3 0:06 2 full Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges: Who Built It https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges/ Photo credit Alfred C. Weatherstone, Public domain. The army Herodotus describes was vast — exaggerated, almost certainly, but still huge by ancient standards. Behind that army stood another, larger group whose lives the chronicles barely mention: the rope-makers and the shipwrights and the woodcutters and the loaders, the men who...

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Image: Alfred C. Weatherstone | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/sx4u-xerxes-pontoon-bridges-who-built-it.mp3 0:06 3 full Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges: Xerxes Wept https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges/ Photo credit Alfred C. Weatherstone, Public domain. Herodotus tells one more story about the crossing that has lasted in the memory of readers for twenty-five centuries. Xerxes climbed a hill near Abydos and looked down at his army covering the plain — hundreds of thousands of men preparing to march into Greece. He ordered a revie...

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Image: Alfred C. Weatherstone | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/sx4u-xerxes-pontoon-bridges-xerxes-wept.mp3 0:06 4 full Xerxes' Pontoon Bridges: What Was Left Behind https://qualla.com/xerxes-pontoon-bridges/ Photo credit Alfred C. Weatherstone, Public domain. Within a year, the campaign was finished. The Persian fleet was wrecked at Salamis. The land army was broken at Plataea in 479 BC. When the survivors came back to the Hellespont to cross home, they found the bridges gone, smashed by another storm, the cables and ships scattered. ...

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Image: Alfred C. Weatherstone | Public domain

]]> Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/x/4/u/xerxes-pontoon-bridges-wp/sx4u-xerxes-pontoon-bridges-what-was-left-behind.mp3 0:06 5 full