Jul 27, 20223 min read

Greece

Updated: Oct 1, 2022

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Country Name

Greece, or officially the Hellenic Republic, is also known as Hellas.

Location

Greece is a country located in Southeast Europe. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa.

It shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia, Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast.

The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.

Capital

Athens.

Reason for Naming

The native name of the country in Modern Greek is Ελλάδα (Elláda).

The corresponding form in Ancient Greek and conservative formal Modern Greek is Hellas.

The Greek adjectival form ελληνικός (Ellinikos) is sometimes also translated as Hellenic and is often rendered in this way in the formal names of Greek institutions, as in the official name of the Greek state, the Hellenic Republic.

The English names Greece and Greek are derived, via the Latin Graecia and Graecus, from the name of the Graeci, who were among the first ancient Greek tribes to settle Magna Graecia in southern Italy.

The term is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵerh₂-, "to grow old".

Flag

The first use of the flag in Greece was in 1822. The current flag was adopted on 22 December 1978. The flag consists of 9 horizontal stripes that 5 blue stripes and 4 white stripes alternating between blue and white, and there is a white cross on a blue square on the top left.

These 9 stripes represent the nine syllables in the Greek phrase that

translates to mean “Freedom or Death", it also represents a letter in the

The Greek word for “freedom.” The blue color represents Greece's sky and the Mediterranean sea. The white color represents purity and white wave crests.

*Flag Facts:

- The flag of Greece is similar to the Flag of Uruguay in its design, but the canton is different in Uruguay it is a yellow Sun and in Greece's flag, it is a white cross.

Language

Greek, the official and primary language of Greece is spoken by the majority of the country's population. Greek is one of the oldest Indo-European languages in the world having survived more than 34 centuries, and it is the official language alongside Turkish in Cyprus. Minority Languages Of Greece; Albanian, Turkish, Macedonian Slavic dialect, Eastern Romance Language called Aromania or Vlachs, Romanian.

English is the dominant foreign language spoken in the business world of Greece and is also taught in schools as a foreign language from the third grade in Greek schools.

Other foreign languages are German, French, and Italian.

Religion

Eastern Orthodox Christianity is the dominant religion that is highly influential in several aspects of society, belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. Islam is followed by 3% of the population. The Muslim community in Greece is mainly of Turkish origin, Greek Catholicism is the other minority religious group in the country.

Currency

Euro (€) (EUR).

Time Zone

+03:00 GMT. (Summer Time)

+02:00 GMT.

Government Regime

Unitary parliamentary republic.

Climate

The climate of Greece is the Mediterranean on coasts and islands, with mild, rainy winters and hot sunny summers. The northern cities, located in the inland areas of Epirus, Macedonia, and Thessaly, have a slightly continental climate, with quite cold winters, during which air masses coming from the north can sometimes bring snow and frost, and hot summers, sometimes scorching. Finally, in the northern mountainous areas, winters are cold and snowy, while summers are mild, with possible afternoon thunderstorms.

On the coasts and islands of central and southern Greece, where the climate is the Mediterranean, winter is mild and quite rainy. The rains are more abundant on the coasts exposed to the west, on the Ionian islands, and on the islands close to Turkey.

In winter, temperatures in Greece progressively decrease as you head north: the average daily temperature in January is 12.5 to 5.5 °C (54.5 to 42 °F).

Spring is pleasant and sunny in most of Greece. The days with some rainfall become less and less frequent. However, in May, in northern areas in the mountain ranges, thunderstorms can erupt in the afternoon.

Summer in Greece is hot and sunny. Although the country is not protected by the Azores High, the weather is consistently sunny. The best period for a beach holiday is the long summer, from early June to mid-September. During this period, there are no clouds in the sky for long periods, and the heat is at times intense, but on coasts and islands, it is tempered by the breeze. In the Aegean Sea, the Meltemi often blows.