1st Fact

At almost 132,000 square kilometres, Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is the ninety-fifth (95th) largest country in the world

2nd Fact

Greece is the eighty-fourth (84th) most populous country with 10.7 million inhabitants.

3rd Fact

Its capital and largest city is Athens, with a population of 664 thousand people, while in its metropolitan area there are more than 3 million. Since the early 2000s, its population has fallen by over 100,000, and it is named after the goddess Athena.

4th Fact

Its official language is Greek and over the millennia it has undergone several changes. The current Greek is known as Modern Greek and its alphabet has 24 letters, is spoken by over 13 million people and is also the official language of Cyprus.

5th Fact

Its name means Land of the Helas, a reference to the Hellenic peoples, in fact Hela sou Helad was the true name of Ancient Greece, the Romans calling it Greece instead.

6th Fact

The country is divided into 14 regions or peripheries and its largest cities apart from the capital are Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, Heraklion and Volos.

7th Fact

According to the World Bank, its economy is the 50th largest in the world, with a GDP of US$ 218 Billion, similar to that of countries like Peru and Iraq.

8th Fact

Until 1974 the country was a monarchy, known as the Kingdom of Greece, when it fell for the last time. Then came the Third Hellenic Republic, the first one occurred after the country gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1822, ten years later the monarchy took over, coming to fall in 1924, where the Second Hellenic Republic began, this lasted until 1935 when the monarchy came to power again.

9th Fact

Its last king was Constantine II, who ascended the throne in 1964, but he actually had to leave the country in 1967 after a military coup and until 1974 the country was under right-wing military dictatorship, known as the Dictatorship of the Colonels. King Constantine was the official head of state of the country until 1973, however, in 1974 there was a plebiscite and put an end to the monarchy. A cool fact about the Greek monarchy is that Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, is Greek, grandson of King George I of Greece.

10th Fact

The Mount Athos region is the smallest region in the country and is the only autonomous region in Greece that has a population of approximately two thousand people. This small peninsula is administered by the Greek Orthodox Church and women and even female animals are forbidden to enter. In fact, it is that the peninsula is like a big monastery, women in boats must stay at least 500 metres away from the shore. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary was at the site, it is so much so, that the area is called the garden of the mother of God.

11th Fact

Although Rome is known as the eternal city, the real one is Athens. The first settlement in the area appeared around 3000 Years Before Christ, it is almost 6,000 years old and is one of the oldest in the world that is still inhabited, and since its foundation it has always been a political and economic centre of the country.

12th Fact

The date of foundation of the city itself is dated 508 BC period when it became known as classical Athens. It was during this period that democracy emerged, but Athenian democracy was very different from modern democracy. At first only the rich could participate, soon after it was allowed for men over 18, but women, slaves and foreigners were excluded, since they were not considered citizens.

13rd Fact

The country is also known as the cradle of western civilisation, besides starting democracy, the country was also revolutionary in its studies being in the first of the accident to start the studies of mathematics, philosophy, astronomy, and other sciences. To this day its thinkers are still remembered such as Plato, Socrates and Aristotle, for example, who is considered by many to be the most famous and well-known person in all of human history.

14th Fact

Its coastline is full of islands, almost 6,000 of them spread across the Mediterranean, Aegean and Ionian Seas. Speaking of islands, the country lives in tension with Turkey due to the dispute over some islands that Turkey claims do not belong to Greece.

15th Fact

Still talking about islands, there is a very special one, the Island of Ikaria. What is special about this island is the amazing longevity of its inhabitants, its residents reach the age of 90 on average two and a half times longer than the rest of Europe, and life expectancy is ten years longer. It is full of centenarians and many associate this characteristic with the local diet.

16th Fact

It was in Greece where the Olympics originated, created in the year 776 BC. The Olympic games were a sports festival in honour of Zeus and took place in the city of Olympia. However, the games were banned in the year 393 by a Roman emperor. They only took place again in 1896, at the beginning of the Olympic Games of the modern era

17th Fact

The Olympic flame is lit in a ceremony in the ruins of the ancient city of Olympia, it is obtained from the sun’s rays reflected in a concave mirror.

18th Fact

The Peloponnese peninsula is connected to the country by the Corinthian Esteem, and that’s where the Corinth Canal is, which was built between 1881 and 1893, it measures only 6.3 km long and before it was made the boats needed to go around 400 km to reach the other side of the peninsula. The first attempt to build it was made by Emperor Nero in the year 63, but the project was abandoned soon after because it was too expensive.

19th Fact

It has a total of 18 World Heritage Sites, such as the Temple of Apollo, the archaeological site of Delphi, Olympia and the hanging monasteries of Meteora, which are simply incredible.

20th Fact

Among these heritage sites we have the most famous one, the Acropolis of Athens, situated in the capital city of the country. The acropolis is nothing more than the important part of a city or state built on a high and strategic place for the defence and protection of its population in times of attacks. There are other Acropolis around Greece, but the most famous one is still this one, after all, it is where the Parthenon, the temple dedicated to the Goddess Athena, is located.

21st Fact

We always hear about the dangers of rising sea levels, but along the Greek Coast you can find some villages and towns that have been totally submerged by sea water, such as the town of Epidauros, many have sunk after earthquakes.

22nd Fact

Recently Greece ended up making Macedonia change its name to North Macedonia, this is because Greece has a huge region called Macedonia, which was actually the ancient region of the Kingdom of Macedonia, home of Alexander the Great. Greece claims to have the historical right to the name and Macedonia accepted to change the name to please Greece, since the Greek vote is essential for the country to enter the European Union.

23rd Fact

One of its most beautiful places is the island of Crete. This is the largest island in the country and is full of deep blue beaches, strategically located between Africa, Europe and Western Asia, it has undergone numerous dominions throughout its history. It is where the Minoan civilisation, the predecessor of the Greek one, began.

24th Fact

This Island is also very famous for the Myth of the Minotaur, the legend may also have arisen due to the Palace of Knossos, whose ruins are still an attraction today.

25th Fact

The highest mountain in the country is Mount Olympus, which reaches 2918 metres in height, and in Ancient Greece it was The Abode of the Gods.

26th Fact

In its Flag, white symbolises the waves of the sea and the clouds, the blue, the sea and the sky. The Cross symbolises the Greek Orthodox Church and traditionally the nine stripes represent the nine syllables present in the Greek phrase freedom or death. Some also say they represent the nine geographical regions of the country.

27th Fact

The country was home to two wonders of the ancient world, the incredible statue of Zeus at Olympia and the great Colossus of Rhodes.

28th Fact

We are used to seeing Greek letters in our academic life with psi, gamma, delta among others, but the cool thing is that the word alphabet comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, Alpha and Beta, and incidentally, Greek is one of the oldest written languages still in use.

29th Fact

Greece is the third largest producer of olives in the world. Olive oil is one of its staple foods, thanks to the thousands of olive trees that have existed in the country since ancient times, and it is also known for being the country with the highest per capita consumption of olive oil.

30th Fact

During the Second World War the Greek kingdom eventually succumbed to the Axis, being occupied by Nazi Germany and Italy. After falling, the king had to go into exile in British territory.