# Which battleground saw the most battles? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949 "2017-06-02T18:57:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/1 "2017-06-02T18:57:36Z")
There are certain regions of the world which due to geostrategic reasons have suffered frequent military combat throughout history. A European example is Flanders, which got devastated every time France wanted to conquer Germany (and the rest of Europe) or Germany wanted to conquer France (and the rest of Europe). But what is the single place with the most recorded battles in history? I don’t know if that is even answerable, but there’s no better place to ask than here on the Dope. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Gay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ab097/32.png) [@Enola\_Gay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Gay)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/2 "2017-06-02T19:17:31Z")
I think Israel would be in the top 5. ---
**Author:** ![Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d9b06d/32.png) [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boozahol_Squid_P.I)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/3 "2017-06-02T19:18:55Z")
Thermopylae (of Three Hundred fame) is one starting place. While Flanders is an entire region, Thermopylae is a single pass where dozens of conflicts have taken place, essentially any time a force north of it wanted to head further south into Greece. Wikipedia lists 8 battles there, but according to Herodotus, it was already an oft-used battle site by the time Leonidas and company made their way there. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/4 "2017-06-02T19:25:43Z")
> [@Boozahol\_Squid\_P.I](#): > > Thermopylae (of Three Hundred fame) is one starting place. While Flanders is an entire region, Thermopylae is a single pass where dozens of conflicts have taken place, essentially any time a force north of it wanted to head further south into Greece. Wikipedia lists 8 battles there, but according to Herodotus, it was already an oft-used battle site by the time Leonidas and company made their way there. Yeah, that’s the kind of example I was going for, though my example Flanders is a whole region, I meant a special place, city or field. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/5 "2017-06-02T19:29:52Z")
There have been three major battles Panipat, each of them have changed the fate of India. Its the last defendable position before Delhi and control of all of North India. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/6 "2017-06-02T20:49:36Z")
Are we counting the bazillion Battles of the Isonzo during WWI (damn you, Cadorna!) as one really long battle or individually? ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/7 "2017-06-02T20:55:06Z")
Jerusalem might be a good contender. From [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem) > [@](#): > > During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times, and captured and recaptured 44 times ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_Panic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/don_t_panic/32/398_2.png) [@Don\_t\_Panic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_Panic)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/8 "2017-06-02T21:23:44Z")
Maybe not a front runner (hard to beat Jerusalem, I suspect), but worthy of mention: Battles of [Ctesiphon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Ctesiphon). And [where](https://www.google.com/maps/place/33%C2%B005'37.0%22N+44%C2%B034'50.0%22E/@33.232604,44.5501143,9.67z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d33.093611!4d44.580556?hl=en) is Ctesiphon? Well, it’s right next door to [Baghdad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Baghdad). That stretch along the Tigris has seen quite a bit of action in total. BTW, about France/Belgium: I’ve been reading about both Roman history and WWI recently. I had this odd moment where I was flipping between reading about the Battle of the Axona (Caesar’s Gallic Wars) and the First Battle of the Aisne (WWI). Same river, same place, about two millennia apart. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/9 "2017-06-02T22:20:09Z")
Not in the same league as Jerusalem, but notable since it is nearly 500 years since we had a proper battle on our island; Berwick-Upon-Tweed, which sits on the northern (and thus historically Scottish) bank of the Tweed River on the North Sea coast. During the 13th and 14th centuries, both the English and Scots stubbornly vied for control of the strategically vital town. Before Elizabeth I managed to secure Berwick in the 16th Century with a cordon of impregnable walls and fortifications, the small seaside village changed hands an amazing 13 times making it perhaps the most fought over piece of land in the British Isles. > **[Hot Properties - Eight of History’s Most Fought Over Places -...](https://militaryhistorynow.com/2014/09/15/hot-properties-seven-of-historys-most-contested-places/)** > > “The following places have changed hands or been fought over at least half a dozen times.” MAJOR MEDIA OUTLETS  reported last week that President Obama is ordering the U.S. military to execute a new round of air strikes... ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/10 "2017-06-02T22:26:08Z")
There was a factory in Stalingrad that changed hands fourteen times in one day. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/11 "2017-06-03T00:26:03Z")
[Adrianople](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adrianople_(disambiguation)) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/12 "2017-06-03T00:27:32Z")
The Isonzo river valley was the site of a dozen named battles in WWI (the first through the twelfth Battles of Isonzo) many in the same locations and all within 100 miles of each other. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/13 "2017-06-03T00:54:49Z")
A US civil war battle in Virginia was fought twice. [http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-03-07/travel/9903170396\_1\_manassas-national-battlefield-war-battles-first-battle](http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1999-03-07/travel/9903170396_1_manassas-national-battlefield-war-battles-first-battle) > [@](#): > > The Union army called this place Bull Run. But history has embraced the victorious army’s name for it: Manassas. The Confederates won here not once, but twice. > > The battlefield is the most nationally significant attraction in Virginia’s Prince William County. > > The first major land battle of the Civil War took place here on July 21, 1861. > > The battle raged 10 hours. About 35,000 men fought for each side. Nearly 900 were killed, a low number compared with the carnage in hundreds of battles that would follow. > > The second battle took place in the same area just 13 months later – from Aug. 28 to 30, 1862. It was larger and more deadly: More than 3,200 were killed. > > At the end of that battle, Union forces made a valiant last stand on the same hill Jackson defended in the first battle. Darkness brought an end to the fighting. The Union army was defeated but still intact. > > Jackson and his troops again were involved in Second Manassas, supported by troops under Robert E. Lee and James Longstreet. “It was one of Lee’s most stunning victories,” said park curator Jim Burgess. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/14 "2017-06-03T00:55:54Z")
Gaza City? ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2017, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-battleground-saw-the-most-battles/787949/15 "2017-06-03T17:59:52Z")
I was surprised to find out that Jacksonville FL was burned down seven different times during the Civil War.