Greece is a small country where Western civilization started about 2,500 years ago. In those days, Greece controlled much of the land bordering the Mediterranean and Black seas. Athens is the capital and the largest city of Greece.
In Athens and many other parts of Greece, magnificent ruins stand as monuments to the nation's glorious past. About one-fifth of the workers in Greece earn their living by farming, and agriculture is an important economic activity. But mountains cover most of Greece, and the land is rocky with little fertile soil.
A Greek legend tells that God sifted the earth through a strainer while making the world. He made one country after another with the good soil that sifted through, and threw away the stones left in the strainer. According to the legend, these stones became Greece.
No part of Greece is more than 85 miles (137 kilometers) from the sea. The Greeks have always been seafaring people. About a fifth of Greece consists of islands. The mainland makes up the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula, extending into the Mediterranean Sea. Many ancient Greek legends, including those about Odysseus and Jason, center on sea voyages. Today, Greece has one of the largest merchant fleets in the world.
The ancient city-states of Greece were conquered by the kingdom of Macedonia in 338 B.C. In the 140's B.C., the Roman Empire took control of Macedonia and Greece. Greece remained part of larger empires until 1829, when it won its independence from the Ottoman Empire. Until recently, Greece has had many serious political problems, largely because of weak or undemocratic governments.
Hopping the Greek islands
Greece gives you 1000's of wondrous islands to choose from. Where to begin? |
