Greece - Tourism and Travel

Greece, officially known as the Hellenic Republic, is a country in southern Europe, in the Balkans.

Many people consider Greece to be the birthplace of western civilization.

Greece has a parliamentary system of government.

It is a member of the European Union. The official currency of Greece is the euro.

Geography and Climate of Greece

Greece consists of a mountainous peninsula as well as thousands of islands in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Ionian seas. Greece has an area of 50,949 square miles (131,957 square kilometers), more than one fifth of which is made up of islands.

Most of Greece is covered with hills and mountains

The Rhodope Mountains are at the border with Bulgaria.

The Pindus Mountains form a spine through the center of Greece and then descend into the Aegean Sea, where they become an archipelago of more than 2,000 islands. The largest of these islands is Crete.

The highest mountain in Greece is Mount Olympus - the home of the gods, according to Greek mythology. Mount Olympus is 9,570 feet (2,917 meters) high.

The rocks that make up Mount Olympus began to form 200 million years ago at the bottom of a shallow sea.

In the earliest stage of the mountains development, older metamorphic rocks were thrust on top of younger limestone rocks. Then, about two million years ago, regional warping and erosion caused the limestone to become exposed again.

During the last Ice Age, which ended about 10,000 years ago, melting ice carried large layers of rock from the top of Mount Olympus to the foothills at the bottom.

The volcano on the Greek island of Santorini last erupted 3,500 years ago. The island is still covered with layers of black volcanic ash from that eruption. There are still signs of volcanic activity on Santorini.

24 rock towers on the plain of Thessaly are remnants of an old plateau. The rest of the plateau has been worn down by weathering along fissures in the rock. The area, known as Meteora, contains a number of monasteries, including the famous monastery of Roussanou.

The Peloponnese is a region in southern Greece that is made up of several mountainous peninsulas. The Isthmus of Corinth connects it to the mainland. In 1893, the Corinth Canal was built. This canal, which runs through the Isthmus of Corinth, connects the Ionian and Aegean seas.

Southeast of the Peloponnese is an arc of islands that includes Kythira, Rhodes, Karpathos and Crete.

There are lowlands around Thessaloniki in northeastern Greece and on the plain of Thessaly in the center of the country.

Much of southern Greece, including Crete, is covered in dry scrubland, which is the result of centuries of soil degradation and forest clearance. Landslides in these areas are a common occurrence.

On the island of Naxos, part of the Cyclades group in the Aegean, terraces have been built on hillsides to help prevent soil erosion.

Summers in Greece are hot and dry. In general, winters are wet and mild, but it us colder in the north. The mountains have heavy snowfall.

People of Greece

Greece has a population of 11,161,000. One third of the people live in and around the capital city, Athens, or the city of Salonica, in the north.

98% of the people are ethnic Greeks.

Greek is the official language of Greece Turkish, Macedonian and Albanian are also spoken.

98% of the people are Christian Orthodox and 1% are Muslim.

About one fifth of the population works in agriculture; many of the people are subsistence croppers or goat herders.

Economy of Greece

Greece exports wine, olives, olive oil, raisins and citrus fruits.

There is a strong maritime tradition in Greece, which has one of the largest merchant fleets in the world.

Greece has nickel and aluminum mines.

Products manufactured in Greece include chemical, textiles, clothing, food products and tobacco products.

Many small craft workshops can be found clustered around the cities.

There is a large tourism industry in Greece.

The service and construction sectors are also significant.