Sestos

Sestos was an ancient city in Thrace on the Thracian Chersonese peninsula, on the European shore of the Hellespont opposite the city of Abydos; its ruins lie near modern Eceabat, Turkey. In Greek mythology it was the home of Hero in the story of Hero and Leander, and in 480 BC the Persian king Xerxes I bridged the Hellespont near the city at the start of his invasion of Greece. Sestos served as a major Achaemenid port before Athens besieged it in 479 BC after the Greek victories over Persia, after which it joined the Athenian-led Delian League. Its fortress, later called Choiridokastron, fell to the Ottomans in 1355, one of their earliest footholds in Europe.