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Gandhi, Churchill & The Battle of Spion Kop

Reading about the Battle of Spion Kop (Dutch: Slag bij Spionkop; Afrikaans: Slag van Spioenkop) on Wikipedia I came across this interesting line:

“The battle, collectively with its location at a hill, has gone down in British football lore as the namesake of a common British term for single-tier terraces and/or stands at football stadia.”
Who knew?
Or that stadia is the plural of stadiums.
;)


Spion Kop in 2008
Quite the formidable position

72mKBWA.jpg
 
Interesting name for a hill/mountain: 'Spion kop' literally means 'spy head', at least in Dutch not fully sure about Afrikaans but it should be similar. Perhaps because the 'head' of the mountain was favorable to spying eyes?
 
Lethaface said:
Interesting name for a hill/mountain: 'Spion kop' literally means 'spy head', at least in Dutch not fully sure about Afrikaans but it should be similar. Perhaps because the 'head' of the mountain was favorable to spying eyes?
Click to expand...

"Kop" in this context means hill (kopjie or koppie means small hill) -- while spion does mean "spy" (in Afrikaans as well ... and German too) -- it probably name was meant more like Lookout Hill, as it dominates the surrounding areas as a vantage/observation point.
 
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