Greece

Greece: capital Athens, population 10.4M, area 131,990 km². The 93rd most populous country, in Europe. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

Greece links the first Olympics at Olympia with the modern Games revived in Athens in 1896. The Parthenon's marble work began in 447 BC, while a volcanic eruption around 1600 BC shaped Santorini's flooded caldera. Its 24-letter alphabet made vowels systematic, Chios growers still coax mastic into translucent tears, and the apparently traditional sirtaki was choreographed for a 1964 film.

• The ancient Olympic Games are traditionally dated to 776 BC at Olympia; held every four years, each Olympiad was named after the winner of the stadion sprint.
• In 508 BC, Cleisthenes reshaped Athens's constitution, strengthened the citizens' assembly and introduced institutions associated with the city's democratic system, including ostracism.
• The London Protocol of February 1830 recognized Greece as an independent state, nine years after the uprising now commemorated each 25 March began.
• Athens hosted the first modern international Olympic Games from 6 to 15 April 1896; James Connolly won the opening triple jump, the first Olympic medal in over 1,500 years.

• The Iliad and Odyssey were probably composed in the late eighth or early seventh century BC and transmitted orally; whether a single poet called Homer created them remains debated.
• Aristotle founded the Peripatetic school at Athens's Lyceum and assembled a library that helped him produce hundreds of works, though only about one-third survives.
• Georgios Papanikolaou reported in 1928 that uterine cancer cells could be detected in vaginal smears; his method became the Pap test for cervical cancer screening.
• Crete-born Doménikos Theotokópoulos moved to Toledo in 1577, became known as El Greco, and continued signing paintings with his Greek name, sometimes adding ‘Cretan.’

• Construction of the Parthenon began on the Acropolis in 447 BC and finished in 438 BC; sculptural decoration continued for another six years.
• Meteora once had 24 monasteries perched on sandstone pillars; six structures remain, and the complex joined UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1988.
• Completed in 1893, the Corinth Canal cuts 6.4 kilometres through the isthmus at sea level without locks, but its 24.6-metre width excludes many modern ships.
• Around 1600 BC, Santorini's Minoan eruption expelled an estimated 28–41 cubic kilometres of dense rock and buried Akrotiri, leaving the island group's flooded caldera.

• Developed by the late ninth or early eighth century BC, the 24-letter Greek alphabet was the earliest known script to represent vowels and consonants systematically.
• Rebetiko emerged from several strands of urban Greek song in the 1930s; a revival began in the 1960s, and UNESCO listed the genre in 2017.
• On Chios, growers cut each mastic tree 5–10 times every four or five days; the resin hardens into droplets called the ‘tears of Chios.’
• Sirtaki was choreographed for the 1964 film Zorba the Greek, combining slow and fast hasapiko rhythms to music composed by Mikis Theodorakis.

What is the capital of Greece?

The capital of Greece is Athens.

What is the population of Greece?

Greece has about 10.4M people — the 93rd most populous country in the world.

How big is Greece?

Greece covers 131,990 km², making it the 95th largest country by area.

Which region is Greece in?

Greece is in Southern Europe, Europe.