The dance of Zalongo is considered to be a monumental act of bravery and defiance against the Ottoman Turks by the women of Epirus and is one of the most heroic pages in Greece's history.
By the end of 1803, Epirus' ruler Ali Pasha wanted to finish once and for all with the Souliotes the rebel people for him and his Sultan. His army besieged Souli and forced them to sign a treaty on December 12th,
The basic conditions of the agreement, which were not observed, were that the Souliotes including women and children evacuate the villages and they would not be harmed.
On December 16th the people of Souli divided into three phalanxes and left their ancestral homes behind
Two days later. the third plalanx was attacked in Zalongo by a large body of Turkish soldiers. During the violent fight that followed a group of Souliotes were trapped by the enemy among them were about 60 women some of them pregnant.
In order to avoid capture, enslavement and humiliation the women threw their children off a steep cliff where they jumped to their death one by one.
The insident was soon known across Europe as the Dance of Zalongo becoming he ultimate symnbol of heroism and self-scrifice over the years.
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