GREECE

,,SPACE TEDS’ ADVENTURES AROUND EUROPE,, - ROMANIA 1

• Greece (Greek: Ελλάδα, Elláda, officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Ellīnikī Dīmokratía) and known since ancient times as Hellas (Greek: Ἑλλάς), is a country in Southern Europe.  According to the 2011 census, Greece's population is around 11 million.

• Athens is the nation's capital and largest city.

Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Western Asia, and Africa, and shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north and Turkey to the northeast. 

The country consists of nine geographic regions: -Macedonia, -Central Greece, -the Peloponnese, -Thessaly,- Epirus, -the Aegean Islands (including the Dodecanese and

Cyclades), -Thrace, - Crete- the Ionian Islands. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian

Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. 

• Capital and largest cityAthens 37°58′N 23°43′E

• Official languages Greek• Ethnic groups(2011)• 91.6% Greek• 4.4% Albanian • 0.7% Bulgarian• 3.3% others • Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional

republic • President Karolos Papoulias - • Prime Minister Antonis Samaras

• Area- Total131,957 km2 (97th)50,949 sq mi 

•  Water (%)0.8669

• Population- 2011 census10,816,286  

• Density 82/km 2 212/sq mi

• Currency Euro (€)b (EUR)

History• The earliest evidence of

human presence in the Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, in the northern Greek province of Macedonia.  Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries, as Greece lies on the route via which farming spread from the Near East to Europe.

• Greece is home to the first advanced civilizations in Europe and is considered the birthplace of Western civilization.

Geography • Greece consists of a mountainous,

peninsular mainland jutting out into the sea at the southern end of the Balkans, ending at the Peloponnese peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth).  Due to its highly indented coastline and numerous islands, Greece has the 11th longest coastline in the world with 13,676 km (8,498 mi); its land boundary is 1,160 km (721 mi).  The country lies approximately between latitudes 34° and 42° N, and longitudes 19° and 30° E.

• Greece features a vast number of islands, between 1,200 and 6,000, depending on the definition, 227 of which are inhabited.  Crete is the largest and most populous island; Euboea, separated from the mainland by the 60m-wide Euripus Strait, is the second largest, followed by Rhodes and Lesbos.

Culture

Statue of Socrates in front of the Academy of Athens.

Nobile Teatro di San Giacomo di Corfù

Giorgos Seferis, Nobel Prize in Literature (1963)

Cretan dancers of traditional music

Sports• Greece is the birthplace of the

Olympic Games, first recorded in 776 BC.  The ancient Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, which was essentially rebuilt in 1895, hosted the first modern Olympic Games in 1896.  It had also hosted Olympic Games in 1870 and 1875 (see Evangelis Zappas).  The Panathenaic stadium also hosted the Games in 1906 and was used to host events at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

• The Greek national football team, ranked 14th in the world in 2012,won the UEFA Euro 2004 in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the sport and became one of only nine national teams to have won the European Championship in football.  The Greek Super League is the highest professional football league in the country comprising eighteen teams.  The most successful are Olympiacos, Panathinaikos and AEK Athens.

National footbal team THE COACH - Fernando Santos