1.
Attica (region)
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Attica is an administrative region that encompasses the entire metropolitan area of Athens, the capital of Greece. The region is coextensive with the former Attica Prefecture of Central Greece, located on the eastern edge of Central Greece, Attica covers about 3,808 square kilometers. About 3,750,000 people live in the region, the Attica region was established in the 1987 administrative reform, and until 2010 comprised the 4 prefectures of Athens, East Attica, Piraeus and West Attica. With the 2010 Kallikratis plan, the powers and authority were completely redefined and extended. Since 1 January 2011, the region represents the local administration. While being supervised by the Decentralized Administration of Attica, it is now an independent self-governing body with powers, the region is subdivided into eight subordinate regional units, The regions governor is Rena Dourou, who on 1 September 2014 succeeded Giannis Sgouros following the 2014 local elections. The Attica region consists of five districts, Athens A, Athens B, Piraeus A, Piraeus B. Athens Mass Transit System Athens Metro Athens Tram Proastiakos Transit System Official website
2.
Attica Prefecture
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Attica Prefecture was a prefecture of Greece, first established in 1833 and disestablished for the last time in 1987. The prefecture was coextensive with the present-day Attica region, Attica Prefecture was first established in 1833 as Attica and Boeotia Prefecture. Attica and Boeotia Prefecture finally ceased to exist in 1943, when it was split up into Attica. Attica Prefecture was administered as part of Central Greece until 1987, with the 2010 Kallikratis plan, the Attica regions authority were redefined, since 1 January 2011, the region represents the second-level local administration
3.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
4.
Regions of ancient Greece
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The regions of ancient Greece were areas identified by the ancient Greeks as geographical sub-divisions of the Hellenic world. These regions are described in the works of ancient historians and geographers, conceptually, there is no clear theme to the structure of these regions. Some, particularly in the Peloponnese, can be seen primarily as distinct units, defined by physical boundaries such as mountain ranges. These regions retained their identity, even when the identity of the living there changed during the Greek Dark Ages. Nevertheless, these regions also survived the upheaval of the Greek Dark Ages, outside the Peloponnese and central Greece, geographical divisions and identities did change over time suggesting a closer connection with tribal identity. Over time however, all the regions also acquired geo-political meanings and these traditional sub-divisions of Greece form the basis for the modern system of regional units of Greece. However, there are important differences, with many of the ancient regions not represented in the current system. To fully understand the ancient history of Greece therefore requires more detailed description of the ancient regions, continental Greece was a geographic region of Greece. In English the area is usually called Central Greece, but the equivalent Greek term is rarely used. Today it forms the part of the regional unit of Aetolia-Acarnania. The capital and principal city in ancient times was Stratos, the north side of Acarnania of the Corinthian Gulf was considered part of the region of Epirus. Acarnanias foundation in Greek mythology was traditionally ascribed to Acarnan, son of Alcmaeon, Aeniania or Ainis was a small district to the south of Thessaly. The lowland border in the Spercheios valley with Malis ran approximately north-south along from Oeta to the spur of Othrys. During the Archaic and Classical periods, the Aenianians were members of the Delphian Amphictyonic League, the country has a level and fruitful coastal region, but an unproductive and mountainous interior. The mountains contained many wild beasts, and acquired fame in Greek mythology as the scene of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, Ancient Aperantia was a small region of Aetolia, south of Dolopia. The name of Attica was said to be derived from Atthis, daughter of Cranaus, Attica is bounded on the east by the Aegean sea, on the west by Megaris and the Saronic gulf and on the north by Boeotia. It is separated from Boeotia by a range of mountains, in the Archaic and Classical periods, the Atticans were members of the Delphian Amphictyonic League, and shared the two Ionian votes on the Amphictyonic council with the Euboeans. The region of Boeotia, along many of the cities that existed there in the Classical period, is described in the catalogue of ships
5.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
6.
Kaisariani
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Kaisariani is a suburban town and a municipality in the eastern part of the Athens agglomeration, Greece. Kaisariani is located about 3 km southeast of Athens city centre, the municipality has an area of 7.841 km2. Towards the east the municipality extends to the forested Hymettus mountain, the built-up area of Kaisariani is continuous with that of Athens and the suburb Vyronas to the southwest. The main thoroughfare is Ethnikis Antistasis Avenue, which connects Kaisariani with central Athens, the town was founded in 1922 as a refugee camp for refugees driven from Asia Minor, most of whom coming from Smyrna. Formerly part of the city of Athens, Kaisariani was created as a municipality in 1933, the name was derived from Kaisareia, the historical capital city of Cappadocia, Asia Minor. Kaisariani has its own Greek A2 League basketball team, named Near East Kaisariani, the team plays in the Near East Indoor Arena
7.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
8.
Piraeus
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Piraeus is a port city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens urban area,12 kilometres southwest from its city center, the municipality of Piraeus and several other suburban municipalities within the regional unit of Piraeus form the greater Piraeus area, with a total population of 448,997. Piraeus has a recorded history, dating to ancient Greece. During the Golden Age of Athens the Long Walls were constructed to connect Athens with Piraeus, the port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe and the second largest in the world, servicing about 20 million passengers annually. With a throughput of 1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among the top ten ports in container traffic in Europe, the city hosted events in both the 1896 and 2004 Summer Olympics held in Athens. The University of Piraeus is one of the largest universities in Greece, Piraeus, which roughly means the place over the passage, has been inhabited since the 26th century BC. Consequently, it was called the Halipedon, meaning the salt field, through the centuries, the area was increasingly silted and flooding ceased, and thus by early classical times the land passage was made safe. In the late 6th century BC, the area caught attention due to its advantages, in 511 BC, the hill of Munichia was fortified by Hippias and four years later Piraeus became a deme of Attica by Cleisthenes. The Athenian fleet played a role in the battle of Salamis against the Persians in 480 BC. From then on Piraeus was permanently used as the navy base, the citys fortification was farther reinforced later by the construction of the Long Walls under Cimon and Pericles, with which Piraeus was connected to Athens. Meanwhile, Piraeus was rebuilt to the grid plan of architect Hippodamus of Miletus, known as the Hippodamian plan. As a result, Piraeus flourished and became a port of high security and great commercial activity, during the Peloponnesian War, Piraeus suffered its first setback. In the second year of the war, the first cases of the Athens plague were recorded in Piraeus, in 404 BC, the Spartan fleet under Lysander blockaded Piraeus and subsequently Athens surrendered to the Spartans, putting an end to the Delian League and the war itself. As a result, the tattered and unfortified port city was not able to compete with prosperous Rhodes, the destruction was completed in 395 AD by the Goths under Alaric I. Piraeus was led to a period of decline which lasted for fifteen centuries. During the Byzantine period the harbour of Piraeus was occasionally used for the Byzantine fleet and it was also called Porto Drako by Greeks, drako meaning not just dragon, but any monster. When Piraeus was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1456, it known as Aslan Liman. The Piraeus Lion itself was looted in 1687 by Francesco Morosini during his expedition against Athens and was carried to the Venetian Arsenal, a copy of the lion statue is on display at the Archaeological Museum of Piraeus
9.
Attic Greek
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Attic Greek is the Greek dialect of ancient Attica, including of the city of Athens. Of the ancient dialects, it is the most similar to later Greek and is the form of the language that is studied in ancient Greek language courses. Attic Greek is sometimes included in the Ionic dialect, together, Attic and Ionic are the primary influences on Modern Greek. Greek is the member of the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European language family. In ancient times, Greek had already come to exist in several dialects, mycenaean Greek represents an early form of Eastern Greek, the group to which Attic also belongs. Later Greek literature wrote about three main dialects, Aeolic, Doric, and Ionic, Attic was part of the Ionic dialect group, ruling from Alexandria, Ptolemy launched the Alexandrian period, during which the city of Alexandria and its expatriate Greek-medium scholars flourished. The earliest Greek literature, which is attributed to Homer and is dated to the 8th or 7th centuries BC, is written in Old Ionic rather than Attic. The first extensive works of literature in Attic are the plays of the dramatists Aeschylus, the military exploits of the Athenians led to some universally read and admired history, as found in the works of Thucydides and Xenophon. Slightly less known because they are technical and legal are the orations by Antiphon, Demosthenes, Lysias, Isocrates. The Attic Greek of the philosophers Plato and his student Aristotle dates to the period of transition between Classical Attic and Koine, Attic Greek, like other dialects, was originally written in a local variant of the Greek alphabet. In other respects, Old Attic shares many features with the neighbouring Euboean alphabet, like the latter, it used an L-shaped variant of lambda and an S-shaped variant of sigma. It lacked the consonant symbols xi for /ks/ and psi for /ps/, expressing these sound combinations with ΧΣ, moreover, like most other mainland Greek dialects, Attic did not yet use omega and eta for the long vowels /ɔ, / and /ɛ, /. Instead, it expressed the vowel phonemes /o, oː, ɔː/ with the letter Ο and /e, eː, moreover, the letter Η was used as heta, with the consonantal value of /h/ rather than the vocalic value of /ɛː/. In the 5th century, Athenian writing gradually switched from this system to the more widely used Ionic alphabet, native to the eastern Aegean islands. This new system, also called the Eucleidian alphabet, after the name of the archon Eucleides, the classical works of Attic literature were subsequently handed down to posterity in the new Ionic spelling, and it is the classical orthography in which they are read today. Proto-Greek long ā → Attic long ē, but ā after e, i, r, ⁓ Ionic ē in all positions. ⁓ Doric and Aeolic ā in all positions, Proto-Greek and Doric mātēr → Attic mētēr mother Attic chōrā ⁓ Ionic chōrē place, country However, Proto-Greek ā → Attic ē after w, deleted by the Classical Period. Proto-Greek korwā → early Attic-Ionic *korwē → Attic korē Proto-Greek ă → Attic ě, Doric Artamis ⁓ Attic Artemis Compensatory lengthening of vowel before cluster of sonorant and s, after deletion of s
10.
Delian League
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Shortly after its inception, Athens began to use the Leagues navy for its own purposes. This behavior frequently led to conflict between Athens and the powerful members of the League. The Greco-Persian Wars had their roots in the conquest of the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the Persians found the Ionians difficult to rule, eventually settling for sponsoring a tyrant in each Ionian city. While Greek states had in the past often been ruled by tyrants, by 500 BC, Ionia appears to have been ripe for rebellion against these Persian clients. The simmering tension finally broke into open revolt due to the actions of the tyrant of Miletus, attempting to save himself after a disastrous Persian-sponsored expedition in 499 BC, Aristagoras chose to declare Miletus a democracy. This triggered similar revolutions across Ionia, extending to Doris and Aeolis, after this, the Ionian revolt carried on for a further five years, until it was finally completely crushed by the Persians. The Ionian revolt had severely threatened the stability of Dariuss empire, Darius thus began to contemplate the complete conquest of Greece, beginning with the destruction of Athens and Eretria. In the next two decades there would be two Persian invasions of Greece, occasioning, thanks to Greek historians, some of the most famous battles in history. During the first invasion, Thrace, Macedon and the Aegean Islands were added to the Persian Empire, however, the invasion ended in 490 BC with the decisive Athenian victory at the Battle of Marathon. Between the two invasions, Darius died, and responsibility for the war passed to his son Xerxes I, Xerxes then personally led a second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, taking an enormous army and navy to Greece. Those Greeks who chose to resist were defeated in the simultaneous battles of Thermopylae on land. The following year,479 BC, the Allies assembled the largest Greek army yet seen and defeated the Persian invasion force at the Battle of Plataea, ending the invasion and the threat to Greece. The Allied fleet defeated the remnants of the Persian fleet in the Battle of Mycale near the islands of Salamis—on the same day as Plataea and this action marks the end of the Persian invasion, and the beginning of the next phase in the Greco-Persian wars, the Greek counterattack. After Mycale, the Greek cities of Asia Minor again revolted, the Allied fleet then sailed to the Thracian Chersonese, still held by the Persians, and besieged and captured the town of Sestos. The following year,478 BC, the Allies sent a force to capture the city of Byzantion, the siege was successful, but the behaviour of the Spartan general Pausanias alienated many of the Allies, and resulted in Pausaniass recall. After Byzantion, Sparta was eager to end its involvement in the war, the Spartans were of the view that, with the liberation of mainland Greece, and the Greek cities of Asia Minor, the wars purpose had already been reached. There was also perhaps a feeling that establishing long-term security for the Asian Greeks would prove impossible, in the aftermath of Mycale, the Spartan king Leotychides had proposed transplanting all the Greeks from Asia Minor to Europe as the only method of permanently freeing them from Persian dominion. Xanthippus, the Athenian commander at Mycale, had rejected this, the Ionian cities had been Athenian colonies
11.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
12.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
13.
Capital city
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A capital city is the municipality exercising primary status in a country, state, province, or other region, usually as its seat of government. A capital is typically a city that encompasses the offices and meeting places of its respective government. In some jurisdictions, including countries, the different branches of government are located in different settlements. In some cases, a distinction is made between the capital and the seat of government, which is in another place. The word capital derives from the Latin caput, meaning head, in several English-speaking states, the terms county town, county seat, and borough seat are also used in lower subdivisions. In unitary states, subnational capitals are known as administrative centres. The capital is often, but not necessarily, the largest city of its constituent, historically, the major economic centre of a state or region often becomes the focal point of political power, and becomes a capital through conquest or federation. Examples are Ancient Babylon, Abbasid Baghdad, Ancient Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Changan, Ancient Cusco, Madrid, Paris, London, Moscow, Beijing, Tokyo, Vienna, and Berlin. Some of these cities are or were also religious centres, e. g. Constantinople, Rome, Jerusalem, Ancient Babylon, Moscow, Belgrade, Paris, and Peking. A capital city that is also the economic, cultural. The convergence of political and economic or cultural power is by no means universal, traditional capitals may be economically eclipsed by provincial rivals, e. g. Nanking by Shanghai, Quebec City by Montreal, and numerous US state capitals. The decline of a dynasty or culture could also mean the extinction of its city, as occurred at Babylon. Although many capitals are defined by constitution or legislation, many long-time capitals have no legal designation as such, for example Bern, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London, Paris, are located in or near them. In Canada, there is a capital, while the ten provinces. The states of such countries as Mexico, Brazil, and Australia all have capital cities, for example, the six state capitals of Australia are Adelaide, Brisbane, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. In Australia, the capital cities is regularly used, to refer to the aforementioned state capitals plus the federal capital Canberra and Darwin. Abu Dhabi is the city of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. In unitary states which consist of multiple constituent countries, such as the United Kingdom or the Kingdom of Denmark, the national capitals of Germany and Russia, the Stadtstaat of Berlin and the Federal City of Moscow, are also constituent states of both countries in their own right
14.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
15.
Peninsula
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A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends out. Examples include the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan, the surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such, one can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, a point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also said to form a peninsula within the loop of water. In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulas can be found on coastlines and in smaller bodies of water throughout the world, ranging in scale from square meters to millions of square kilometers. Theres the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, and in Southern Europe theres the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, south America has the Brunswick Peninsula, and Antarctica has the Antarctic Peninsula. In Africa, theres the Horn of Africa, and in Australia, asia has the 3 largest peninsulas in the world, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Peninsula, and the Indochinese Peninsula
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Aegean Sea
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The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas, i. e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, it is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles, the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was known as Archipelago, but in English this words meaning has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and, generally. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, a possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = waves, hence wavy sea, cf. also αἰγιαλός, hence meaning sea-shore. The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, in some South Slavic languages the Aegean is often called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, the seas maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south, Kythera, Antikythera, Crete, Kasos, Karpathos, many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows, On the South. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles, the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres, then flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s. The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea, Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature. The current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC, before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, and there were large well-watered coastal plains instead of much of the northern Aegean. When they were first occupied, the islands including Milos with its important obsidian production were probably still connected to the mainland. The present coastal arrangement appeared c.7000 BC, with post-ice age sea levels continuing to rise for another 3,000 years after that, the subsequent Bronze Age civilizations of Greece and the Aegean Sea have given rise to the general term Aegean civilization. In ancient times, the sea was the birthplace of two ancient civilizations – the Minoans of Crete and the Mycenean Civilization of the Peloponnese, later arose the city-states of Athens and Sparta among many others that constituted the Athenian Empire and Hellenic Civilization. Plato described the Greeks living round the Aegean like frogs around a pond, the Aegean Sea was later invaded by the Persians and the Romans, and inhabited by the Byzantine Empire, the Bulgarians, the Venetians, the Genoese, the Seljuq Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The Aegean was the site of the democracies, and its seaways were the means of contact among several diverse civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many of the islands in the Aegean have safe harbours and bays, in ancient times, navigation through the sea was easier than travelling across the rough terrain of the Greek mainland
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Boeotia
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Boeotia, sometimes alternatively Latinised as Beotia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece and it was also a region of ancient Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and its largest city is Thebes, Boeotia lies to the north of the eastern part of the Gulf of Corinth. It also has a coastline on the Gulf of Euboea. It bordered on Megaris in the south, Attica in the southeast, Euboea in the northeast, Opuntian Locris in the north and Phocis in the west. The main mountain ranges of Boeotia are Mount Parnassus in the west, Mount Helicon in the southwest, Cithaeron in the south and its longest river, the Cephissus, flows in the central part, where most of the low-lying areas of Boeotia are found. Lake Copais was a lake in the center of Boeotia. It was drained in the 19th century, lake Yliki is a large lake near Thebes. The earliest inhabitants of Boeotia, associated with the city of Orchomenus, were called Minyans, pausanias mentions that Minyans established the maritime Ionian city of Teos, and occupied the islands of Lemnos and Thera. The Argonauts were sometimes referred to as Minyans, also, according to legend the citizens of Thebes paid an annual tribute to their king Erginus. The early wealth and power of Boeotia is shown by the reputation and visible Mycenean remains of several of its cities, especially Orchomenus, the origin of the name Boeotians may lie in the mountain Boeon in Epirus. Some toponyms and the common Aeolic dialect indicate that the Boeotians were related to the Thessalians and they moved south and settled in another rich plain, while others filtered across the Aegean and settled on Lesbos and in Aeolis in Asia Minor. Others are said to have stayed in Thessaly, withdrawing into the hill country, many ancient Greek legends originated or are set in this region. The older myths took their form during the Mycenean age when the Mycenean Greeks established themselves in Boeotia. Many of them are related to the myths of Argos, and others indicate connections with Phoenicia, Boeotia was also notable for the ancient oracular shrine of Trophonius at Lebadea. Graea, an ancient city in Boeotia, is thought to be the origin of the Latin word Graecus, from which English derives the words Greece. The major poets Hesiod and Pindar were Boeotians, on the other hand, the lack of good harbours hindered its maritime development. The importance of the legendary Minyae has been confirmed by archaeological remains, the Boeotian population entered the land from the north possibly before the Dorian invasion
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Megaris
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This is also the ancient Greek name of a small island off Naples, site of the Castel dellOvo. Megaris was a small but populous state of ancient Greece, west of Attica and north of Corinthia, whose inhabitants were adventurous seafarers, the capital, Megara, famous for white marble and fine clay, was the birthplace of Euclid. Mount Geraneia dominates the center of the region, the island of Salamis was originally under the control of Megara, before it was lost to Athens in the late 7th century BCE. The province of Megaris or Megarida was one of the provinces of the East Attica Prefecture and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Aspropyrgos, Eleusis, Mandra-Eidyllia and Megara. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Wood, James. London and New York, Frederick Warne
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Fifth-century Athens
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Fifth-century Athens is the Greek city-state of Athens in the time from 480 BC-404 BC. This was a period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth, Athens patron goddess was Athena, from whom they derived the name. These strategoi were given duties which included planning military expeditions, receiving envoys of other states, during the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, Pericles was his deputy. Pericles was a speaker, this quality brought him tremendous success in the Assembly. One of his most popular reforms was to allow thetes to occupy public office, another success of his administration was the creation of the misthophoria, a special salary for the citizens that attended the courts as jurors. This way, these citizens were able to dedicate themselves to service without facing financial hardship. With this system, Pericles succeeded in keeping the full of jurors. As Athens ruler, he made the city the first and most important polis of the Greek world, acquiring a resplendent culture, the sovereign people governed themselves, without intermediaries, deciding matters of state in the Assembly. Athenian citizens were free and only owed obedience to their laws and they achieved equality of speech in the Assembly, the word of a poor person had the same worth as that of a rich person. The censorial classes did not disappear, but their power was limited, they shared the fiscal and military offices. The principle of equality granted to all citizens had dangers, since citizens were incapable of exercising political rights due to their extreme poverty or ignorance. To avoid this, Athenian democracy applied itself to the task of helping the poorest in this manner, to seek and supply work to the poor. To grant lands to dispossessed villagers, public assistance for war widows, invalids, orphans and indigents. Among those selected by lot to a body, specific office was always rotated so that every single member served in all capacities in turn. This was meant to ensure that political functions were instituted in such a way as to run smoothly, the magistrates were people who occupied a public post and formed the administration of the Athenian state. They were submitted to public control. The magistrates were chosen by lot, using fava beans, black and white beans were put in a box and depending on which color the person drew out they obtained the post or not. This was a way of eliminating the influence of rich people and possible intrigues
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Classical Greece
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Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Greek culture. This Classical period saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire, Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, theatre, literature, in the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period, sometimes called the Hellenic period, corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period and this century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in Classical Greece, the period referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 4th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant. However, a view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC, the Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens instrument. Athens excesses caused several revolts among the cities, all of which were put down by force. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about, then the war resumed to Spartas advantage, Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy and this meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty, according to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War, in 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras, but his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, through his reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions — i. e. with equal rights for all —and established ostracism. The isonomic and isegoric democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, the 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly, headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The territory of the city was divided into thirty trittyes as follows, ten trittyes in the coastal region ten trittyes in the ἄστυ. A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one each of the three groups
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Cleisthenes
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Cleisthenes was a noble Athenian of the Alcmaeonid family. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a footing in 508/7 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as the father of Athenian democracy and he was the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon, as the younger son of the latters daughter Agariste and her husband Megacles. Also, he was credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens’ assembly, historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BC. Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles mother Agariste and of Alcibiades maternal grandfather Megacles, with help from the Alcmaeonidae, he was responsible for overthrowing Hippias, the tyrant son of Pisistratus. After the collapse of Hippias tyranny, Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power and he did so on the pretext of the Alcmaeonid curse. Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city, Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on the pretext that they too were cursed. He also attempted to dissolve the Boule, a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the affairs of the city. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support of the council, Isagoras and his supporters were forced to flee to the Acropolis, remaining besieged there for two days. On the third day they fled the city and were banished, Cleisthenes was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens. After this victory, Cleisthenes began to reform the government of Athens and he commissioned a bronze memorial from the sculptor Antenor in honor of the lovers and tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whom Hippias had executed. It is thought there may have been 139 demes which were organized into three groups called trittyes, with ten demes divided among three regions in each trittyes. Cleisthenes also abolished patronymics in favour of demonymics, thus increasing Athenians sense of belonging to a deme and he also established sortition - the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity, a true test of real democracy. He reorganized the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon and he also introduced the bouletic oath, To advise according to the laws what was best for the people. The court system was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day and it was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed or returned for amendments by the assembly, Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism, whereby a vote from more than 6,000 of the citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years. The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy, however, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile. Under this system, the exiled mans property was maintained, Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia, instead of demokratia
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History of Athens
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Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at least 5000 years. Following a period of decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, the etiological myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus, Apollodorus, Ovid, Plutarch, Pausanias and others. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon, both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with one another for the honour, offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident, Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree, a sacred olive tree said to be the one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias. It was located by the temple of Pandrosus, next to the Parthenon, according to Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during the Persian Wars, but a shoot sprung from the stump. The Greeks saw this as a symbol that Athena still had her there on the city. Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, offers his own etymology of Athenas name connecting it to the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē theoû nóēsis. The site on which Athens stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as a settlement on top of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is a defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. The settlement was about 20 km inland from the Saronic Gulf, in the centre of the Cephisian Plain, to the east lies Mount Hymettus, to the north Mount Pentelicus. Ancient Athens, in the first millennium BC, occupied a small area compared to the sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The Acropolis was situated just south of the centre of this walled area, the Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the Athenian Assembly met, the Eridanus river flowed through the city. One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon, which stood on top of the Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major sites, the Temple of Hephaestus and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion also lay within the city walls. According to Thucydides, the Athenian citizens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War numbered 40,000, making with their families a total of 140,000 people in all
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Laurium
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Laurium or Lavrio or Lavrion is a town in southeastern part of Attica, Greece. It is the seat of the municipality of Lavreotiki, Laurium was famous in Classical antiquity for its silver mines, which was one of the chief sources of revenue of the Athenian state. The metallic silver was used for coinage. The Archaeological Museum of Lavrion shows much of the story of these mines and it is a sea port of much less importance than nearby Piraeus. It is located about 60 km SE of Athens, SE of Keratea, Laurium is situated on a bay overlooking the island of Makronisos in the east. The port is in the middle and gridded streets cover the area of Lavrio. GR-89 runs through Lavrio and ends south in Sounio, recent discoveries date the first mines to 3200BC. Systematic exploitation of mineral resources seem to have begun un the 6th century BC under Peisistratus, the mines, which were the property of the state, were usually farmed out for a certain fixed sum and a percentage on the working, slave labour was exclusively employed. As many as 20,000 slaves were employed at the height of the mining, a silver mint was at Laurion. Towards the end of the 5th century, the output fell, but the mines continued to be worked, though Strabo records that in his time the tailings were being worked over, and Pausanias speaks of the mines as a thing of the past. The ancient workings, consisting of shafts and galleries for excavating the ore, there were well engineered tanks and reservoirs to collect rainwater for washing the ore since abundant supplies from streams or rivers was impossible at the site. The mines were reworked in the early 20th century by French and Greek companies, the Mineralogical Museum of Lavrion comprises samples of minerals from the region of Lavrion. The Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport is 35 km away from Lavrio or about 30 minutes drive, Lavrio is connected to Athens by car using the Lavrio/Sounio Leoforos and then Attiki Odos. This trip takes about an hour, a quite convenient solution to go to Athens is to park and drive. Drive from Lavrio to Koropi Train Station and there take the train proastiakos or metro that goes straight to Athens center, Lavrio was the terminal station of the Athens-Lavrion Railway, which was abandoned in 1957. The mining town of Laurium, Michigan was named after the famous Greek Laurium, Laurium hosts the football club Olympiacos Laurium with earlier presence in Gamma Ethniki and the basketball club Lavrio B. C. with presence in A1 Ethniki. Aleksinac, Serbia Mangalia, Romania List of municipalities of Attica Édouard Ardaillon, Les Mines du Laurion dans lantiquité, ixxvii. of the Bibliothéque des Ecoles francaises dAthênes et de Rome. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
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Administrative regions of Greece
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The administrative regions of Greece are the countrys thirteen first-level administrative entities, each comprising several second-level units, originally prefectures and, since 2011, regional units. The current regions were established in July 1986, by decision of then-Interior Minister Menios Koutsogiorgas as a second-level administrative entities, as part of a decentralization process inspired by then-Interior Minister Alekos Papadopoulos, they were accorded more powers in the 1997 Kapodistrias reform of local and regional government. They were transformed into separate entities by the 2010 Kallikratis Plan. In the 2011 changes, the general secretary was replaced with a popularly elected regional governor. Many powers of the prefectures, which were abolished or reformed into regional units, were transferred to the region level. The regional organs of the government were in turn replaced by seven decentralized administrations. Bordering the region of Central Macedonia there is one region, Mount Athos. It is located on the easternmost of the three large peninsulas jutting into the Aegean from the Chalcidice Peninsula, ISO 3166-2, GR Administrative divisions of Greece
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West Attica
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West Attica is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Attica, the capital of the regional unit is the town of Eleusis. The regional unit covers the part of the agglomeration of Athens. The regional unit West Attica is subdivided into 5 municipalities and these are, Aspropyrgos Eleusis Fyli Mandra-Eidyllia Megara With respect to parliamentary elections West Attica belongs to the electoral district of Attica. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit West Attica was created out of the former prefecture West Attica, the prefecture had the same territory as the present regional unit. At the same time, the municipalities were reorganised, according to the table below, there were two provinces in the prefecture of West Attica, Megarida, and the Attica Province. List of settlements in Attica Official website News and information
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Kythira
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Kythira is an island in Greece lying opposite the south-eastern tip of the Peloponnese peninsula. It is traditionally listed as one of the seven main Ionian Islands, administratively, it belongs to the Islands regional unit, which is part of the Attica region. The island is located between the Greek mainland and Crete, and from ancient times until the mid 19th century was a crossroads of merchants, sailors. As such, it has had a long and varied history and has influenced by many civilisations. This is reflected in its architecture, as well as the traditions and customs, influenced by centuries of coexistence of the Greek, Venetian, and Ottoman cultures. Kythira and the island of Antikythira were separate municipalities until they were merged at the 2011 local government reform. The municipality has an area of 300.023 km2, the municipal unit 279.593 km2, the province of Kythira was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture. It had the territory as the present municipality Kythira. There are archaeological remains from the Helladic period, contemporary with the Minoans, there is archaeological evidence of Kythiran trade as far as Egypt and Mesopotamia. Kythira had a Phoenician colony in the archaic age, the sea-snail which produces Tyrian purple is native to the island. Xenophon refers to a Phoenician Bay in Kythira, the archaic Greek city of Kythira was at Scandea on Avlemonas, its ruins have been excavated. Its acropolis, now Palicastro, has the temple of Aphrodite Ourania, in classical times, Kythira was part of the territory of several larger city-states. Kythira was independent, and issued her own coins, in 195, in Augustus time, it was again subject to Sparta, being the property of Gaius Julius Eurycles, who was both a Spartan magnate and a Roman citizen. By this time, the Greek cities were in practice subject to the Roman Empire, Kythira continued to exist under the Roman Empire and its Byzantine successor state for centuries. Christianity is attested from the fourth century AD, the time of Constantine, according to her legend, archaeological evidence suggests the island was abandoned about 700 AD. When Saint Theodore of Cythera led a resettlement after the Byzantine reconquest of Crete in 962 and he established a great monastery at Paliochora, a town grew up around it, largely populated from Laconia. When the Byzantine Empire was divided among the conquerors of the Fourth Crusade, during the Venetian domination the island was known as Cerigo. Ottomans called this island Chuha Island, kythirans still talk about the destruction and looting of Paliochora by Barbarossa, it has become an intrinsic part of the Kytherian folklore
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Troizinia-Methana
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Troizinia-Methana is a municipality in the Islands regional unit, Attica, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Galatas, the municipality was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the two former municipalities Methana and Troizina, that became municipal units. Initially named Troizinia, in January 2014 the municipality was renamed Troizinia-Methana, the municipality has an area of 240.858 km2. The province of Troizinia was one of the provinces of the Piraeus Prefecture and its territory corresponded with that of the current municipalities Troizinia and Poros
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Peloponnese
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The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the part of the country by the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, the peninsula is divided among three administrative regions, most belongs to the Peloponnese region, with smaller parts belonging to the West Greece and Attica regions. In 2016, Lonely Planet voted the Peloponnese the top spot of their Best in Europe list, the Peloponnese is a peninsula that covers an area of some 21,549.6 square kilometres and constitutes the southernmost part of mainland Greece. It has two connections with the rest of Greece, a natural one at the Isthmus of Corinth. The peninsula has an interior and deeply indented coasts. The Peloponnese possesses four south-pointing peninsulas, the Messenian, the Mani, the Cape Malea, mount Taygetus in the south is the highest mountain in the Peloponnese, at 2,407 metres. Οther important mountains include Cyllene in the northeast, Aroania in the north, Erymanthos and Panachaikon in the northwest, Mainalon in the center, the entire peninsula is earthquake prone and has been the site of many earthquakes in the past. The longest river is the Alfeios in the west, followed by the Evrotas in the south, extensive lowlands are found only in the west, with the exception of the Evrotas valley in the south and in the Argolid in the northeast. The Peloponnese is home to spectacular beaches, which are a major tourist draw. Two groups of islands lie off the Peloponnesian coast, the Argo-Saronic Islands to the east, the island of Kythera, off the Epidaurus Limera peninsula to the south of the Peloponnese, is considered to be part of the Ionian Islands. The island of Elafonissos used to be part of the peninsula but was separated following the quake of 365 AD. Since antiquity, and continuing to the present day, the Peloponnese has been divided into seven regions, Achaia, Corinthia, Argolid, Arcadia, Laconia, Messinia. Each of these regions is headed by a city, the largest city is Patras in Achaia, followed by Kalamata in Messinia. The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times and its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means Island of Pelops, the Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greeces first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC, archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records
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Islands (regional unit)
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Islands is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Attica, the regional unit covers the Saronic Islands, a small part of the Peloponnese peninsula, and a few islands off the eastern Peloponnese coast. As a part of the 2011 Kallikratis government reform, the regional unit Islands was created out of part of the former Piraeus Prefecture and it is subdivided into 8 municipalities. These are, Aegina Agistri Cythera Hydra Poros Salamis Spetses Troizinia-Methana List of settlements in Attica
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Lake Marathon
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Lake Marathon or the Marathon Reservoir is a water supply reservoir formed from the construction of Marathon Dam at the junction of Charadros and Varnavas Torrents near the town of Marathon, Greece. It was the water supply for Athens from 1931, when it became operational. In 1959 water from Lake Yliki became available, and water from Mornos Reservoir became available in 1981, the area of the lake at the height of the spillway of the dam is 2. The dam has a height of 54 m, a maximum width of 28 m at the base and 4.5 m at the crest. The crest is 227 m above sea level, the toe is 173 m above sea level, the dam is constructed from concrete and is a gravity dam. It is unique worldwide because its external cladding of white marble is the same marble used in construction of the Parthenon. The dam was constructed by the American firm ULEN, the construction lasted from 1926 to 1929. List of lakes in Greece Media related to Lake Marathon at Wikimedia Commons EYDAP SA Athens Water Supply and Sewerage Company
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Eleusis
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Eleusis is a town and municipality in West Attica, Greece. It is situated about 18 kilometres northwest from the centre of Athens and it is located in the Thriasian Plain, at the northernmost end of the Saronic Gulf. North of Eleusis are Mandra and Magoula, while Aspropyrgos is to the northeast, Eleusis is the seat of administration of West Attica regional unit. It is the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the birthplace of Aeschylus, today, Eleusis is a major industrial centre, with the largest oil refinery in Greece as well as the home of the Aeschylia Festival, the longest-lived arts event in Attica Region. On 11 November 2016 Eleusis was named the European Capital of Culture for 2021.589 km2, from as early as 600 BC up to the 4th century AD, Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries, or the Mysteries of Demeter and Kore. These Mysteries revolved around a belief that there was a hope for life after death for those who were initiated, such a belief was cultivated from the introduction ceremony in which the hopeful initiates were shown a number of things including the seed of life in a stalk of grain. The central myth of the Mysteries was Demeters quest for her lost daughter who had been abducted by Hades, Demeter raised Demophoon, anointing him with nectar and ambrosia, until Metaneira found out and insulted her. Demeter arose insulted, and casting off her disguise, and, in all her glory, today, the city has become a suburb of Athens, to which it is linked by the Motorway 6 and Greek National Road 8. Eleusis is nowadays a major area, and the place where the majority of crude oil in Greece is imported and refined. The largest refinery is located on the west side of town, there is a military airport a few kilometers east of Eleusis. Eleusis Airfield played a role in the final British evacuation during the 1941 Battle of Greece. Eleusis is home to the football club Panelefsiniakos F. C. the Hellenic National Meteorological Service weather station of Eleusis has an average maximum July temperature of 33. 0°C and has recorded temperatures over 45. 0°C nine times between 1973–2007). The Eleusis phenomenon is not yet completely understood however factors of geomorphology, warm water masses in the summer, according to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Eleusis has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, abbreviated Csa on climate maps. Eleusis hosts the multi-sport club Panelefsiniakos with successful sections in football and basketball, other historical club of Eleusis is Iraklis Eleusis, founded in 1928
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Isthmus of Corinth
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The Isthmus of Corinth is the narrow land bridge which connects the Peloponnese peninsula with the rest of the mainland of Greece, near the city of Corinth. The word isthmus comes from the Ancient Greek word for neck, the Isthmus was known in the ancient world as the landmark separating the Peloponnese from mainland Greece. In the first century CE the geographer Strabo noted a stele on the Isthmus of Corinth, to the west of the Isthmus is the Gulf of Corinth, to the east the Saronic Gulf. Since 1893 the Corinth Canal has run through the 6.3 km wide isthmus, today, two road bridges, two railway bridges and two submersible bridges at both ends of the canal connect the mainland side of the isthmus with the Peloponnese side. Also a military emergency bridge is located at the west end of the canal, the idea for a shortcut to save boats sailing all round the Peloponnese was long considered by the Ancient Greeks. The first attempt to build a canal there was carried out by the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC and he abandoned the project owing to technical difficulties, and instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland stone ramp, named Diolkos, as a portage road. Remnants of Diolkos still exist today next to the modern canal, when the Romans took control of Greece, a number of different solutions were tried. Julius Caesar foresaw the advantages of a link for his newly built Colonia Laus Iulia Corinthiensis, by the reign of Tiberius, engineers tried to dig a canal, but were defeated by lack of modern equipment. Instead they built an Ancient Egyptian device, boats were rolled across the isthmus on logs and this was in use by AD32. In AD67, the philhellene Roman emperor Nero ordered 6,000 slaves to dig a canal with spades, historian Flavius Josephus writes that the 6000 slaves were Jewish pirates, taken captive by Vespasian during the Jewish wars. According to Pliny the Elder, the work advanced four stadia, the following year Nero died, and his successor Galba abandoned the project as being too expensive. In the modern era, the idea was first seriously proposed in 1830, soon after Greeces independence from the Ottoman Empire, near the canal runs an ancient stone trackway, the Diolkos, once used for dragging ships overland. There are major concerns about preservation of this path, Greek campaigners are calling for greater effort by the Greek government to protect this archaeological site. The Hexamilion wall is a Roman defensive wall constructed across the Isthmus of Corinth guarding the land route into the Peloponnese peninsula from mainland Greece
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Saronic Gulf
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The Saronic Gulf or Gulf of Aegina in Greece forms part of the Aegean Sea and defines the eastern side of the isthmus of Corinth. It is the terminus of the Corinth Canal, which cuts across the isthmus. The gulf includes the islands of Aegina, Salamis, and Poros along with smaller islands of Patroklos, the port of Piraeus, Athens port, lies on the northeastern edge of the gulf. The site of the former Ellinikon International Airport is also in the northeast, beaches line much of the gulf coast from Poros to Epidaurus, Galataki to Kineta and from Megara to Eleusis and from Piraeus down to Anavyssos. Athens urban area surrounds the northern and the coasts of this gulf. Bays in the gulf include Phaleron Bay, Elefsina Bay to the north, Kechries Bay in the northwest, the volcano of Methana is located to the southwest along with Kromyonia at the Isthmus of Corinth, Aegina and Poros. Methana is also the youngest most active center and forms the northwestern end of the cycladic arch of active volcanoes that includes Milos island, Santorini island. A hydropathic institute at Methana makes use of the hot water that still surfaces in the area. The most recent eruption was of a submarine volcano north of Methana in the 17th century, the gulf has refineries around the northern part of the gulf including east of Corinth and west of Agioi Theodoroi, Eleusis, Aspropyrgos, Skaramangas and Keratsini. These refineries produce most of Greeces refined petroleum products, a proportion of which are then exported. Commercial shipping to the refineries, Piraeus, and to and from the make the gulf quite a busy area with commercial shipping. The origin of the name comes from the mythological king Saron who drowned at the Psifaei lake, the Saronic Gulf was a string of six entrances to the Underworld, each guarded by a chthonic enemy in the shape of a thief or bandit. Fault lines dominate especially in the northwestern part, the port of Cenchreae used to be situated here. Kechries Bay Saronic Bay Coast Lower Galataki Basin Upper Galataki Basin Examilia Basin Athikia Basin Loutro Basin Megara Bay/Megara Gulf Cephissus River Cephissus between Piraeus and Phaliron. The Gulf boasts two particularly notable archaeological sites, the ancient theatre at Epidaurus and nearby asclepieion and the The temple of Aphaia on Aegina, Saronic gulf is one of congregating areas for short-beaked common dolphins in Aegean Sea. On recent occasions, more of large whales such as fin whales have been sighted in the due to improving environmental conditions
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Hymettus
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Hymettus, also Hymettos, is a mountain range in the Athens area of Attica, East Central Greece. There is also an ancient quarrymans hut on the slopes of the mountain. The height is 1,026 m at Evzonas and the length is 16 km between Athens and the Saronic Gulf and 6 to 7 km from east to west, in the ancient times, the highest point was known as Mega Ymittos and the southern Elattona and Anydro Ymitto. It was noted for its thyme honey, marble has been quarried since antiquity. Most of the forest is in the north, and much of the mountain is rocky, deforested, grassy, a transmitter park for several major TV and radio stations, along with military radar is located at the top of the mountain. Built up urban areas almost surround the mountain range. Access to the top of the mountain is restricted to authorized vehicles for maintenance of the towers. Almost all of Athens, its suburbs and the new airport can be seen from the mountain top along with the mountains of Parnitha to its northwest, Penteli to its north. The valley areas that create the lowest passes are to the south, the mountain ranges features about six to seven landfills in the western part and another in the eastern part. Automatic acoustic Monitoring and Inventorying of BIOdiversity
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Parnitha
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Mount Parnitha is a densely forested mountain range north of Athens, the highest on the peninsula of Attica, with an elevation of 1,413 m, and a summit known as Karavola. Much of the mountain is designated a park, and is a protected habitat for wildfowl. The summit is located 18 km N of Acharnae and about 30 km N of Athens, other peaks include Mavrovouni, Ornio, Area, Avgo or Avgho, and Xerovouni. It also has two shelters Mpafi and Flampouri. The name of the dates back to ancient times, when it was under the ancient demes of Acharnae. Towns surrounding the mountain include Aspropyrgos, Fyli, Acharnes, Varymbombi, Thrakomakedones, Dekeleia, Avlona, the highway GR-1 surrounds the northern and eastern part of the mountain along with the Cephissus river, while the Attiki Odos motorway runs to its south. The view during clear days can extend to northern Boeotia and the Peloponnese, the mountain was also affected by several major blizzards, including two in 2005 and 2006, stranding cars and closing roads, as well as the cable car. Forests of Aleppo Pine cover all slopes beneath 1,000 m altitude, above 1,000 m it is covered principally in Greek Fir, grasses and shrubbery, and beneath 300 m mainly farmlands and suburban housing to the east. About 1,000 species of plants can be found on the mountain, including crocus and tulips, and the mountain provides a native habitat to its red deer. After the traumatic fire in 2007, they are more scarce. Several large mines lie to the northwest, and the ore from them was shipped to a factory in industrial areas. Parnitha has many places with archaeological interest, most usual ancient buildings in Parnitha are the fortresses. In antiquity, many fortresses had been built on the mountain, for the Athenian defense opposite the Boeotians, today some fortresses kept in good condition such as the Phyle fortress, built at a height of 687 meters in the west of Parnitha. Other notable fortresses are the Panakton, in the area of Dervenochoria, notable monument of later periods is the Monastery of Kleiston. It is a Byzantine monastery dated from 13th century and it is mentioned by Pope Innocent IV in 1209 with the name Monastery of Kyras. Southeast of Parnitha, inside a dense forest, Tatoi Palace is located and it was the palace of Greek royal family and it was built in 19th century. The cave of Panas is located on the west slopes of the mountain at a height of 750 meters and it was worship site in antiquity. Near the cave there is the gorge of Gouras and the gorge of Keladonas river. Beautiful site of the mountain is Beletsi Lake and it is located on the east slopes of the mountain, near Afidnes and it is important place for migratory birds
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Aigaleo
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Aigaleo or Egaleo is a municipality in the western part of the Athens aglomeration, Greece. It takes its name from Mount Aigaleo and its population was 69,946 at the 2011 census. Aigaleo is situated 4 km west of Athens city centre, the municipality has an area of 6.450 km2. It is southeast of Mount Aigaleo, the Cephissus river flows through the industrialized eastern part of the municipality, about 1/4 of its area is taken up by factory developments. The town is served by a Athens Metro station, Egaleo metro station, the Motorway 1 passes through the town. Aigaleo consists of the quarters Kato Aigaleo, Neo Aigaleo, Damarakia, Lioumi, Rosika, Agios Spyridonas, Aigaleo was part of the municipality of Athens until 1934, when it became a separate community. It was raised to municipality status in 1943, the citys present mayor is Dimitris Birbas. The most successful is the Athletic Club Egaleo with successful departments in football and basketball
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Penteli, Greece
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Penteli is a town and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit, Attica, Greece. It belongs to the Athens metropolitan area and it takes its name from the Penteli mountain. The municipality has an area of 36.064 km2, the municipal unit Penteli 28.878 km2 and it is 14 km northeast of central Athens. Some of the neighbourhoods of Penteli are Agia Triada, Agios Dimitrios, Daou, the Penteli mountains were renowned in Classical Greece as well as in the Roman Empire as a source of the marble, which was also used to build the Parthenon. The Romans constructed a 140-foot water tower and aqueduct to supply water to the city of Athens, during the Greek War of Independence, the French philhellene Sophie de Marbois-Lebrun, Duchess of Plaisance supported the revolutionary leaders. When she settled in Greece in 1834, she bought large plots of land in Athens and she had the Rododafni Castle in Penteli built for her. In July 1995, Penteli was ravaged by a large forest fire, according to Turkish former prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, many of the forest fires that raged the Greek countryside during that summer were accually started by Turkish secret service agents. The forests of Penteli suffered damage again from the August 2007 fires, Rododafni Castle, also known as Pyrgos Doukissis Plakentias, a mansion built for the Duchess of Plaisance. Construction was started in 1840, but it was not finished until 1961, the Penteli Astronomical Station of the National Observatory of Athens, completed in 1936 List of settlements in Attica Official website
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