Greece is located in the southernmost tip of the Balkans. The full name of the Hellenic Republic. Greece in Greek means "Shearon people live." An area of 132,000 square kilometers. 110l million population, 98% for the Greeks, the other for the Arabs. Residents are Orthodox. The official language is Greek. Currency is the euro. Athens (Athinai). Greece Map

National Flag

The flag has blue and white horizontal stripes and in the top left there is a blue square with a painted white cross. It is a symbol of the blue sky and Christian faith.

History

Greece is the birthplace of Western civilization. From BC 5000 to BC 1100, there was the Minoan culture of Crete, BC in 1600 to the former in 1050, and the Peloponnesian peninsula Mycenaean culture. 800 BC city-state form of slavery. fifth century BC for the peak. And Ru Luoma Empire in 146 AD. In the mid-15th century the Ottoman Empire ruled. In 1821, there was the outbreak of the war for independence. In 1852, a kingdom was established. In 1974, a republic was established.

Parthenon

A temple to worship the gods of ancient Greece, this is one of Greece's most important landmarks and tourist attractions. It is located in the old city of Athens on Acropolis Hill, the highest point in the city. Built between 447 and 438 BC, by the famous architect and sculptor Phidias, it is considered the pinnacle of Doric architecture. Outside the temple was rectangular, about 70 meters, 30 meters wide, with more than 46 gram-type ring out in cylindrical form colonnade. All use of white marble material, interior and exterior walls around the temple there are many Greek myths carved relief.

Athos Peninsula

The Athos Peninsula in northern Greece is the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Land. Peninsula residents are monks dressed in black clothes and engaged in agriculture, fishing, printing, food and painting. The Athos Peninsula is also known as "Xanadu." Women are forbidden to enter. It has become a special administrative region of Greece, and is referred to as "the right to an independent kingdom of God."

Olympic sites

Greece is also the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games. In 776 BC, peace in all of Greece's Olympic athletic village of the General Assembly held in the Peloponnese, then, held at regular intervals. 394 AD by Roman emperor banned. Greece after independence, the French educator Baron Pierre de Coubertin's initiative, In 1896, the first modern Olympic Games in Athens were held. Since then, each Olympic torch has been lit by the use of the sun.

Economic and Cultural Customs

Greek industry is based around mining, food, textiles, chemicals and building materials. Bauxite and marble are important minerals. Crops consist of mainly wheat, corn and rice. The main cash crops are tobacco, grapes, olives, citrus fruits and cotton. On the southern island of Crete are the main olive-growing areas. The country's olive oil production and exports rank third in Europe.

Greece has a well-developed shipping industry that has long been an important pillar of the national economy and a major source of foreign earnings. Greece has the world's largest merchant fleet, all privately owned. Greece's largest port is Piraeus, and about 60% of the country's sea cargo passes through there.

Greece is one of the world's ancient civilizations. Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are European art treasures of literature. The famous sculpture "arm of Venus" can also be found here. The ancient Greeks understood the first solar eclipse, the formation of the lunar eclipse, first proposed the heliocentric theory and first proved the Pythagorean theorem.