Garnet

Grossular: Ca₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Vast plains are primarily located in the prefectures of Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Thrace. Andradite: Ca₃Fe₂(SiO₄)₃. Moreover, northeastern Greece features yet another high altitude mountain range, namely the Rhodope range, spreading across the prefectures of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; this area is covered with vast, thick, century old forests including the famous Dadia. Spessartine: Mn₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Once considered the land of Gods, it is today extremely popular among hikers and climbers who deem its height as a challenge. Pyrope: Mg₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Olympus has a height of 2,917 m at its tallest peak.

Almandine: Fe₃Al₂(SiO₄)₃. Mount Olympus is the tallest mountain in the country, located in the northern Pieria prefecture, near Thessaloniki. The Vicos-Aoos Gorge is a popular hotspot for those in fond of extreme sports. The Vikos-Aoos Gorge is yet another spectacular formation and it is the second largest canyon on Earth, second only to the Grand Canyon. Meteora are situated in the Trikala prefecture.

Special lifts transfer visitors to the scenic monasteries that lye on top of those rocks. Most notably, the impressive Meteora formation consisting of high, steep boulders provides a breathtaking experience for the hundrends of thousands of tourists who visit the area each year. Pindus is characterized by its high, steep peaks, often dissected by numerous canyons and a variety of other karstic landscapes. (Actually the islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that once consisted an extension of the mainland).

The range continues through western Peloponnese, crosses the islands of Kythera and Antikythera and find its way into southwestern Aegean, in the island of Crete where it eventually ends. Pindus has a maximum elevation of 2,636 m and it is essentially a prolongation of the Dinaric Alps. Western Greece contains a number of lakes and wetlands and it is dominated by the Pindus mountain range. Four fifths of Greece consist of mountains or hills, making the country one of the most montainous in Europe.

Approximately 50% of the nation's territory is covered by forests. Greece has more than 15,000 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres. The country consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth); and numerous islands (around 3,000), including Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Euboea and the Dodecanese and the Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea as well as the Ionian Sea islands. Main article: Geography of Greece.

Before 1999, Greece's local government structure featured 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi and 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi). The 51 nomoi subdivide into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which contain 1,033 municipalities and communities: 900 urban municipalities (demoi) and 133 rural communities (koinotetes). Beyond these one autonomous region exists: Mount Athos (Agio Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty. Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which subdivide further into the 51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos):.

Main article: Peripheries of Greece. For a list of Greek political parties, see List of political parties in Greece. Both are rare occurrences with usually predictable outcomes as voting outside the party line happens very seldom. An administration may, at any time, seek a "vote of confidence"; conversely, a number of Members of Parilament may ask that a "vote of reproach" be taken.

With the current electoral system, it is the leader of the party gaining a plurality of the votes in the Parliamentary elections who gets appointed Prime Minister. 151 votes). This means that the President of the Republic is bound to appoint as Prime Minister a person who will be approved by a majority of the Parilament's members (i.e. Greek parliamentary politics hinge upon the principle of the "dedilomeni", the "declared confidence" of Parliament to the Prime Minister and his/her administration.

A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to gain representation. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and ensures that the party which leads in the national vote will win a majority of seats. Greeks elect the 300 members of the country's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) by secret ballot for a maximum of four years, but elections can occur at more frequent intervals. However, it is the prime minister and cabinet that play the central role in the political process, while the president performs very limited governmental functions, in addition to ceremonial duties.

The President of the Republic, elected by an increased majority of the Parliament for a term of five years, is nominally the Head of State. The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties. Main article: Politics of Greece. The 2004 Olympic Games were globally hailed as a spectacular success.

Some concerns were raised by certain foreign media over Greece's ability to meet specific construction deadlines as well as its ability to handle a potential terrorist attack ( The 2004 Olympics were the first to be held after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States while Greece was also the smallest nation ever to host such a colossal event, after Finland.) However, Greece triumphantly proved all those who questioned its abilities wrong and immediately after the closing ceremonies many of those media actually apologized, admitting that they were overreacting. The massive preparations that followed literally transformed the Greek capital. On September 5, 1997, the International Olympic Commitee awarded the 2004 Olympic Games to Athens. Ten years later, Greece has become one of the chief advocates of Turkey's struggle to enter the European Union while Greek prime minister, Kostas Karamanlis was one of the best men in the wedding of the daughter of Turkey's premier.

The crisis escalated within only a few days and it was only after the personal intervention of President Bill Clinton that it came to an end. While Greece insisted that according to all treaties and conventions the islets belong to Greece, Turks claimed that the relevant articles were rather unclear. In January 1996, the countries reached the brink of war over the tiny, uninhabited islets of Imia, situated in the southeastern Aegean Sea. These generous, brave acts took many foreigners by surprise and led to a considerable breakthrough in bilateral relations, marred by decades of hostility over territorial disputes and the situation in the divided island of Cyprus.

Turks also responded immediately after a magnitude 5.9 quake jolted Athens on September 7 of that same year, killing 143 people. Greece was the first one to take the initiative to provide valuable help after a monstrous, magnitude 7.4 earthquake leveled much of the Turkish northwest on August 17, 1999, killing more than 17,000 people. The so called earthquake diplomacy came after an unprecedented outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance provided by ordinary Greeks and Turks in each of those cases. As far as Greco-Turkish relations are concerned, these have improved substantially over the last 6 years, after successive earthquakes hit both countries in the summer of 1999.

The trial of those arrested was held in March 2003 and all of them are now behind bars. The group had formed in 1974 and it was responsible for the killing of several American, British and Turkish officials residing in Greece as well as for the killing of prominent Greek politicians. In June 2002, Greek police achieved a major breakthrough in dealing with domestic terrorism when it managed to arrest the members of the notorious Nonember 17 terrorist group. Nevertheless, everyone agrees that the government still has to deal with certain economic issues so as to enable the country to use its full potentials and reach the standard of living of the richest nations in Europe.

With a GDP per capita now standing at $ 22,800 and a growth rate well above European Union's average, Greece is a prosperous nation. The country adopted the Euro in 2001. Massive, widespread investments in industrial enterprises and heavy infrastructure as well as funds from the European Union and impressively growing revenues from tourism, shipping and services have greatly raised the standard of living to unprecedented levels. Over the course of the last 25 years, and particularly during this past decade, Greece has experienced a remarkable economic growth.

The country became the tenth member of the European Union in January 1, 1981. Papandreou dominated the Greek political course for almost 15 years, up until his death in June 23, 1996. However, Papandreou won the elections held on October 18, 1981 by landslide and he formed the first socialist government in the history of the nation. Karamanlis won the 1977 parliamentary elections as well but he resigned in 1980, giving his way to George Rallis.

Meanwhile, yet another prominent figure of the past, charismatic politician Andreas Papandreou had also returned from the United States and he had already founded the Panhellenic Socialist Party or PASOK. Therefore former King Constantine IIand his family remained in Britain and were not allowed free access to the country until 2004. In addition, a referendum held that same yeear, confirmed the will of the overwhealming majority of the Greek people to abolish the monarchy - this time democratically. Democracy had finally been restored and a democratic republican constitution came into force in 1975.

Karamanlis founded the conservative Nea Dimokratia party and he then won the elections. Karamanlis was immediately appointed as the interim prime minister under President Gizikis. In the morning hours of the following day, the plane carrying him landed in Athens amidst massive celebrations by cheering crowds that could not believe that the ordeal they had to endure for seven years was over. In the evening of July 23, 1974, ex Premier Constantine Karamanlis was invited back from Paris where he had found a political refuge.

This was the end for the regime that collapsed within a matter of days. The colonels did not succeed in either predicting that something like that could happen or in effectively mobilizing their armed forces in order to prevent it. Turkey invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974 and managed to occupy the northern part or a third of its territory. This gave a pretext for neighbouring Turkey to intervene militarily, alledgedly to protect the Turkish minority that resided on the island.

The following July, he decided to back a coup d'etat that planned to overthrow the Cypriot President, Archibishop Makarios. Ioannides, however, had even more in his mind. A new head, Phaedon Gizikis, and a new Prime Minister, Adamantios Androutsopoulos, were appointed by the regime. Indeed, both Papadopoulos and Markezinis were overthrown by a countercoup headed by junta hardliner Brigadier Ioannides on November 25.

However, the Athens Polytechnic Uprising marked the beginning of a series of events that would eventually result to the end of the colonels' rule. More than 20 students lost their lives that morning. In the early hours of November 17, a tank smashed the gate of the School causing tragic bloodshed. By November 16, however, the streets around the Polytechnic School resembled more like a battlefield leaving no choice for the junta other than responding using some more of its familiar military tactics.

It should be noted that institutions of higher education in Greece are considered to provide political asylum. They took control of the Athens Law School, something that inspired the students of the Athens Polytechnic School who imitated them. A few weeks later, on November 14, many law students that opposed the regimed realized that the parody would not end unless they took some action. Later that same year, in October of 1973, the head of the junta, colonel George Papadopoulos appointed politician Spiros Markezinis as the Prime Minister.

In 1973 ,however, the junta decided to abolish the Greek monarchy. Nevertheless, since the then head of state, former King Constantine signed in the new regime, it was immediately recognized by the international community and diplomatic relations contiuned unabated. Other polititians, however, managed to escape on time and found a political refuge in such European countries as France and Sweden. In the following years, a number of supporters of the left wing as well as a number of politicians and communists were arrested and brutally tortured by the regime.

The general elections planned by the conservative government to be held on May 28 never took place. That morning, a coordinated effort by a number of Generals and other military officials to seize power by a coup d'etat succeded and they soon managed to establish a fierce military junta. The crisis eventually got out hands of both the elected government and King Constantine II and ended dramatically in the early hours of April 21, 1967. However, starting in 1965, a series of turbulent political events unfolded that led to severe political uncertainty.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Greece experienced a gradual as well as considerable economic growth, aided by significant grants and loans provided to the country by the United States, through the Marshall Plan. After liberation, Greece experienced an equally bitter Greek Civil War between the communist-led Democratic Army and the Hellenic Army that lasted until 1949, when the communists were defeated in the battle of Grammos-Vitsi. The Greek economy languished. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Christian Greeks to shelter its Jewish citizens.

During the years of Nazi occupation, hundreds of thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. Although Crete eventually fell, it is pointed out by historians that this, and the whole Greek campaign, delayed German plans significantly, with the result that the German invasion of the Soviet Union started fatally close to winter. Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, however, offered fierce resistance. In May 1941, to reduce the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt, the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive attack by paratroops.

Germany held onto the country until 1944, when the Greek resistence and British, Australian and New Zealand forces liberated the country. German forces whose ranks included troops from Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, overran and occupied Greece in April-May 1941. Eventually, Mussolini's armies were saved from defeat with the intervention of Italy's Axis ally, Germany since Hitler and his generals needed to secure their strategic souther flank. The Greek counter-attack along the Albanian front gave the Allies their first victory against the Axis forces (see Greco-Italian War).

The Italian troops poured over from Albania. Though Greece was alone and most of Europe occupied by the Axis, the Greek government gave a simple negative response (see Oxi Day)- thereby immediately siding with the Allied. On 28 October 1940, the Italian dictator Mussolini called on the Greeks to allow the troops to enter the country and to surrender its arms. Greece under Metaxas is also compared to Spain at the time, although it lacked the political violence associated with Francisco Franco's regime.

In 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas established an authoritarian conservative dictatorship in Greece, seen as similar to Antonio Salazar's "New State". A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards, around five hundred thousand Turks (including Muslim Greeks) then living in mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in exchange for more than 1.22 million Greek residents of Asia Minor (excluding Constantinople, Imvros and Tenedos). Soon afterwards, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, fixing the borders to this date. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) the Turks eventually defeated the Greek armies and regained control of Asia Minor.

At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, denounced the Sultan's government in Istanbul and formed a new one in Ankara. In the war's aftermath, the Great Powers awarded a small part of Asia Minor to Greece, centered around the city of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had a majority Greek population. In World War I, Greece sided with the entente powers against the Ottoman Empire and the other Central Powers. Greece would slowly grow in territory and population until reaching its present configuration in 1947.

During the 19th and especially the early 20th centuries, in a series of wars with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire (the Ionian Islands were donated by Britain upon the arrival of the new king from Denmark in 1863, and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans without a fight). The first king, Otto of Bavaria, was of the German House of Wittelsbach, and the subsequent line was from the Germano-Danish House of Oldenburg. The Great Powers did not believe the Greeks were capable of governing themselves, and as such looked elsewhere for a prospective monarch. However, that republic was soon dissolved by the Great Powers which then installed a "Greek" monarchy.

The Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek noble from the Ionian Islands, was chosen as President of the new Republic following Greek independence. This was the prelude of the so called "Eastern Question", the gradual dismemberment of the decaying empire by the western powers. At times the Ottomans seemed on the verge of entirely suppressing the Greek revolution but were eventually forced to give in by the direct military intervention of France, Great Britain and Russia. Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause — including people like Lord Byron.

The elites of powerful European nations saw the war of Greek independence, with its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a romantic light (see, for example, the 1824 painting the Massacre of Chios by Eugène Delacroix). In 1821, the Greeks and their allies rebelled and declared their independence, but did not succeed in winning it until 1829. The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. As a result, religion played an integral part in the formation of the Modern Greek and other post-Ottoman national identities.

Therefore, there was no recognition of "Greek Muslims", or of "Christian Turks". The Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians became Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks. The Greeks who remained on the plains during Ottoman occupation were either Christians, who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule, or to a considerable extent Crypto-Christians (Greek Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Orthodox faith) in order to avoid heavy taxation. mountains, plains, and islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage during the years of the Ottoman rule (although at the time it was not strictly speaking a "Greek" church - the Greek Church was instituted after the liberation).

The Orthodox Church, a religious institution with a keen sense of its national character, contributed to the Greeks from all geographical areas of the peninsula (i.e. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. By the end of the 16th century and until the 17th century, Greeks began to migrate back to the plains and cities, adding to the increasing urban population. The Sphakiots of Crete, the Souliots from Souli of Epirus, and the Maniots from Mani of Peloponnesus were the most resilient mountain clans throughout the Ottoman Empire.

As a result some Greek mountain clans across the peninsula, as well as some islands, were able to maintain a status of independence. In the mountainous regions, the Ottomans were unable to create a permanent military and administrative presence. The second migration of Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains, the islands and Greek regions outside Ottoman control. The first migration saw the Greek intelligentsia migrate to Western Europe - especially to Italy - and contribute to the advent of the Renaissance.

While the Ottomans were completing the main conquest of the Greek Mainland, two Greek migrations occurred. Greece was gradually conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century. From the 4th century to the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the north, west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29, 1453 to the Ottoman Empire, when Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Palaeologus dynasty, fell. When the Roman Empire finally split in two, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, centered around Constantinople (known in ancient times as Byzantium), remained Greek in nature, encompassing Greece itself.

Greece became a province of the Roman Empire, but Greek culture continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean. Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), though, in many ways, Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Plato described how the Greeks live round the Aegean Archipelago "like frogs around a pond"; their name has always been associated with the sea. After this, a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC, when a new era of Greek city-states emerged establishing colonies along the Mediterranean, and the alphabet was adopted from the Phoenicians^{[citation needed]}.

The shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilizations in Europe, namely the Minoan and the Mycenaean. Main Article: History of Greece.. (El or el is used on documents by the European Union to indicate the Greek language, not the country).
International abbreviations:.

See Names of the Greeks for discussion. Some Greeks prefer the name Hellas for the country and Hellenes for the people even in English. Modern Georgians still call Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni and Greece საბერძნეთი saberdznet'i, 'Greeks' land' or literally 'land of the wise'. According to Georgian historians, the name is connected with the notion that philosophy was born in Greece.

This form derives from the Georgian word ბრძენი brdzeni – wise. In ancient times, Georgians (Colchis and Iberia) called Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni. An interesting and unique form is kept in Georgian. Norwegian, Chinese (希腊 Xila) and Vietnamese are three of the few languages apart from Greek in which the name Hellas predominates.

On the other hand, the name of Greece in some Middle Eastern and Eastern languages (Turkish: Yunanistan, Arabic and Urdu: يونان (Yawnan), Hebrew: יוון (Yavan), ancient Persian: Yaunâ, Indian Pali: Yona, Malay and Indonesian: Yunani) derives from the Greek toponym Ἰωνία Iōnía. The Japanese name is ギリシャ (Girisha), lent from European languages. The common root of this appelation originate from a different root: Γραικός Graikós (via Latin Graecus), which according to Aristotle, was an ancient name for the Greeks. The name of 'Greece' in other European languages: English: Greece, French: Grèce, Portuguese: Grécia, Spanish and Italian: Grecia, Albanian: Greqi, Welsh: Groeg, German: Griechenland Swedish,Grekland , Dutch: Griekenland, Russian: Греция, etc.

In modern Greek it is called more commonly Ελλάδα Elládha /ɛˈlaða/. This name is also written as Hellas in English, following the ancient Greek pronunciation /hɛˈl:as/. The historical name of Greece in Greek is Ἑλλάς Ellás /ɛˈlas/. Main article: Names of the Greeks.

. Regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Greece has a long and rich history during which its culture has proven especially influential in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The waters of the Aegean Sea border Greece to the east, and those of the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south. It has land boundaries with Bulgaria, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the north, and with Turkey to the east.

Greece, (Greek: Ελλάδα Elládha or Ελλάς Hellás), officially the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Ellinikí Dhimokratía), is a country in southern Europe on the tip of the Balkan peninsula. National Statistical Service of Greece. Hellenic National Intelligence Service. Greek Australian.

Greek Canadians. Greek American. List of Greeks. Greeks.

Plateia Syntagmatos and Vouli ton Ellinon. Conscription in Greece. Postage stamps and postal history of Greece. Military of Greece.

Foreign relations of Greece. Rio-Antirio bridge. List of Greek roads. Transportation in Greece