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Feb 3, 2017 · 86 Interesting Greece Facts. By Karin Lehnardt, Senior Writer. Published February 3, 2017 Updated April 3, 2020. With an area of 50,949 square miles (131,958 square kilometers), Greece is roughly the size of Alabama. The population of Greece is more than 10 million people.—comparatively, the population of Alabama is around 4.5 million.
- Greece is considered to have laid the foundation for Western Civilization, especially as it was appropriated into the Roman Empire and European Cul...
- Greece is famous for creating the Olympic Games, for being the birthplace of democracy, its art, philosophy, and architecture.
- The Greeks called themselves Hellenes and their land was Hellas. The Romans later gave the people the name "Greeks."
- People have been living in Greece for over 40,000 years. The earliest settlers were hunter-gatherers and later farmers. The Minoans were the first...
- Famous ancient Greeks include Hippocrates, Leonidas I, Euclid, Archimedes, Pythagoras, Homer, Plato, and Aristotle, to name a few.
- Greeks invented many types of technology, such as the lighthouse, water wheel, alarm clock, the Olympic Games, arch bridge, plumbing, democracy, sp...
Aug 27, 2019 · General Facts About Greece. Population: 11,122,375 , based on the latest United Nations estimates. From that number the 3,154,52 inhabitants are in Athens. Government: Greece’s government form is the Unitary Parliamentary Republic. The government is directly elected through the election process.
- Overview
- Land
- Relief
Greece, the southernmost of the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. Geography has greatly influenced the country’s development. Mountains historically restricted internal communications, but the sea opened up wider horizons. The total land area of Greece (one-fifth of which is made up of the Greek islands) is comparable in size to England or the U.S. state of Alabama.
Greece has more than 2,000 islands, of which about 170 are inhabited; some of the easternmost Aegean islands lie just a few miles off the Turkish coast. The country’s capital is Athens, which expanded rapidly in the second half of the 20th century. Attikí (ancient Greek: Attica), the area around the capital, is now home to about one-third of the country’s entire population.
A Greek legend has it that God distributed soil through a sieve and used the stones that remained to build Greece. The country’s barren landscape historically caused the people to migrate. The Greeks, like the Jews and the Armenians, traditionally have been a people of diaspora, and several million people of Greek descent live in various parts of the world. Xeniteia, or sojourning in foreign lands, with its strong overtones of nostalgia for the faraway homeland, has been a central element in the historical experience of the Greek people.
Greece is a country that is at once European, Balkan, Mediterranean, and Near Eastern. It lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa and is heir to the heritages of Classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire, and nearly four centuries of Ottoman Turkish rule.
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Greece is bordered to the east by the Aegean Sea, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and to the west by the Ionian Sea. Only to the north and northeast does it have land borders (totaling some 735 miles [1,180 km]), with, from west to east, Albania, the Republic of North Macedonia (see Researcher’s Note: Macedonia: the provenance of the name), ...
Three characteristics of geology and structure underlie these landscape elements. First, northeastern Greece is occupied by a stable block of ancient (Hercynian) hard rock. Second, younger and weaker rocks, the majority of which are of limestone origin, make up western and southern Greece. These were heavily folded during the Alp-building phase of the Paleogene and Neogene periods (about 66 to 2.6 million years ago), when Earth movements thrust the softer sediments east-northeast against the unyielding Hercynian block and produced a series of roughly parallel tectonic zones that gave rise to the mountain-and-valley relief. Third, both the Hercynian block and the Hellenidic (Alpine) ranges were subsequently raised and fractured by tectonic movements. These dislocations created the sunken basins of the Ionian and Aegean seas as well as the jagged edges so typical of Greece’s landscape. Earthquakes are frequent reminders that similar earth movements continue, particularly along the major fault lines. One result of the region’s geologic instability is the widespread presence of marble, which is limestone that has been altered by pressure and heat. Seismic disturbances are sometimes associated with volcanic explosions, especially those involving the island of Thíra (ancient Greek: Thera; also called Santoríni), which was virtually destroyed by a major eruption in the 2nd millennium bce. The vents of the Kaméni islands in the sea-filled explosion crater of Thíra remain active. The island of Mílos (Melos), which rises to 2,465 feet (751 metres) above sea level, is composed of young volcanic rocks.
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Relief and geology provide the basis for describing the Greek landscape in terms of six major regions: central, northeastern, eastern, southern, and western mainland Greece, along with the islands.
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Mar 14, 2024 · Quick Facts About Greece. We have a lot of facts about Greece to get through, but let’s start with a quick list. The population of Greece – Greece has a population of 10.7 million people; Capital City – The Capital city of Greece is Athens and it is also the largest city in Greece. Where is Greece located?
Mount Olympus is Greece's highest mountain at 9,570 feet (2,917 meters) above sea level. Ancient Greeks believed it was the home of the gods. Mount Olympus became the first national park in Greece. Map created by National Geographic Maps. Greece is well known for the thousands of islands dotting the three seas that surround the country.
Nov 26, 2023 · 2. Greece’s Actual Name Is the Hellenic Republic. The English-speaking world might refer to the country as Greece, but its official name is actually the Hellenic Republic. Locals call it “Hellas” or “Hellada,” pronounced with silent H. They also don’t refer to themselves as Greeks, but rather “Hellenes.”. 3.
Aug 17, 2023 · 11. It’s one of the sunniest places in the whole world. One of our favourite facts about Greece is that it’s one of the world’s sunniest countries, basking in more than 250 sunny days – or 3,000 hours of sunshine – each year. Some islands even see around 300 days of sunshine a year. Don’t forget to pack your sunscreen!
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