[font:476d="]Greece is a country in
south-eastern Europe. It is made up of the southernmost part of the Balkan
Peninsula, along with many islands. The Greek mainland is bordered on the north
by Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey.[/font]
[font:476d="]The Greek islands to the
west of the mainland lie in the Ionian Sea, and those to the east lie in the
Aegean Sea. Both seas are arms of the Mediterranean Sea, which lies to the
south of [color:476d=#FFC000]Greece[/color].[/font]
[font:476d="]The total area of the
country, including all the islands, is 131,957 square kilometres. This is
slightly larger than the area of England.[/font]
[color:476d=#FFC000][font:476d="]THE MAINLAND[/font][/color]
[font:476d="]The Greek mainland is
divided in two by the narrow Gulf of Corinth. A narrow strip of land, called an
isthmus, connects the larger, northern part with the smaller Peloponnese
Peninsula to the south. The Corinth Canal, which was completed in 1893, passes
through the isthmus. This man-made canal means that the Pelopónnisos region of
the mainland is cut off as an artificial island.[/font]
[font:476d="]The mainland is rugged
and mountainous. The Pindus Mountains stretch right down the middle of the
peninsula, forming its backbone. At its highest point, the range rises to 2,637
metres, near the Albanian border. To the east, much nearer the Aegean coast, is
the highest and most famous mountain in Greece, Mount Olympus (2,917 metres).
The Ancient Greeks thought that the summit of Olympus, which is usually covered
with snow and hidden by clouds, was the home of their gods.[/font]
[font:476d="]Between the mountains
and the coast lie the flat plains of Greece. These include the large plain of
Attica to the south-east, near the capital city of Athens.[/font]
[color:476d=#FFC000][font:476d="]THE GREEK ISLANDS[/font][/color]
[font:476d="]The Ionian Islands lie
to the west of the Greek mainland. They include the larger islands of
Kefallinía (Cephalonia), Kérkira (Corfu), Levkás and Zákinthos (Zante), as well
as many smaller ones. According to the [i]Odyssey[/i], by the ancient Greek
poet Homer, the small Ionian island of Itháki (Ithaca) was the home of the
great hero Odysseus.[/font]
[font:476d="]The Aegean Islands lie
between the Greek mainland and Turkey. They are divided into groups, such as
the Northern Sporades, Cyclades and Dodecanese Islands. The Cyclades got their
name from a Greek word for 'circle', because the Ancient Greeks thought they
formed a circle around the central island of Delos. According to Greek legend,
Delos was formed when Zeus, the king of the gods, anchored a rock to the seabed
with columns of diamond.[/font]
[font:476d="]The Dodecanese Islands
are much closer to Turkey than to the Greek mainland, and they have only
belonged to Greece since 1947. Their most famous island is Rhodes.[/font]
[font:476d="]Crete, in the Mediterranean
Sea to the south-east of the mainland, is the largest Greek island. It is a
mountainous island, and a narrow plain stretches along its northern coast. Both
the capital, Khaniá (Canea), and the largest city, Iráklion, lie on this
coastal plain. Crete was the site of the ancient Minoan civilization, and many
people visit the island to see the ruins of the Minoan palace at Knossos.[/font]
[color:476d=#FFC000][font:476d="]POPULATION[/font][/color]
[font:476d="]About 10.7 million people
live in Greece, and the vast majority are of Greek descent. They are mainly
Christians who belong to the Greek Orthodox Church, though the country has a
small minority of Muslim Turks. Nearly everyone speaks an everyday dialect of
Greek, called Demotic (or Demotiki). The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, and the
word alphabet itself comes from the first two letters, alpha (written α) and
beta (β).[/font]
[font:476d="]More than half of the
population lives in towns and cities. The largest city is the national capital,
Athens, which has a population of 745,514. The second largest city is Salonica
(or Thessaloníki), an important textile centre in the north-east of the
mainland, which has 363,987 inhabitants.[/font]
[font:476d="]Athens is the political,
commercial and cultural centre of Greece. Its most famous landmark is the
Acropolis, a hill overlooking the city, on which the ancient Athenians built a
fortified district for their important religious buildings. The main building
on the hill is the Parthenon, a ruined temple to the goddess Athena that dates
from the 5th century bc.[/font]
[color:476d=#FFC000][font:476d="]ANCIENT CITY-STATES[/font][/color]
[font:476d="]Historians consider that
Western civilization was born in Ancient Greece. The Olympic Games were first
held there in 776 bc, and there
were three other regular festivals, or games. Powerful city-states arose, and
they soon fought each other. But there were alliances, too. Athens became the
head of the Delian League, a group of cities that drove away the invading
Persians. The period of the 5th century bc
is often called the 'golden age' of Athens and the whole of Ancient Greece.[/font]
[font:476d="]The city of Sparta led
the Peloponnesian League, and eventually it fought for power against Athens.
The Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc)
was won by the Spartans, who were famous for their military training and
strength in battle. Sparta became the dominant Greek state, and Athens went
into decline. Nevertheless, Athens remained important for its culture, and
especially its schools of philosophy. After the death of Socrates, Plato
founded his Academy and Aristotle his Lyceum.[/font]
[font:476d="]The ancient city of Sparta
was destroyed by the Goths in ad 396.
Unlike today's great city of Athens, Sparta is a small town. The modern town
was founded in 1834 by the government of the newly created kingdom of Greece.
Excavations of the nearby ancient city have uncovered the ruins of temples and
other public buildings.[/font]
[color:476d=#FFC000][font:476d="]MODERN INDEPENDENCE[/font][/color]
[font:476d="]Following defeat by the
Macedonians, the region of Ancient Greece became part of a series of empires.
First the Romans took over, then the Byzantines, and finally the Ottoman Turks.
Greece at last became independent in 1832 and at first was ruled by a Bavarian
king.[/font]
[font:476d="]Greece became a republic
in 1924, but the monarchy was restored 11 years later. After civil wars and
periods of military rule, the Greek people voted in 1974 to be a republic
without a king or queen. Greece became a full member of the European Union in
1981.[/font]
[b][font:476d="]Microsoft
Encarta
2007.
1993-2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.[/font][/b]
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