Greece Birding Tours
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Greece is one of Europe’s oldest nations. Known also as the Hellenic Republic (its official name), or Hellas, it is a country where the sea influences life, as it has done for thousands of years. The capital, Athens, sits in the southeast corner of the country, adjacent to the Saronic Gulf. Its 3.7 million population makes up around 35% of the entire population of Greece which stands at 10.7 million people, as of 2018. Greece shares land borders with Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey, while it is flanked to the west by the Ionian Sea and to the east by the Aegean Sea. Greece has a huge number of islands with Corfu, Crete, Lesvos, and Rhodes, among its most well-known to visitors.
The history of Greece is simply too long and varied to do any justice in a summary such as this. It is widely seen as the cradle of civilization and the birthplace of democracy, philosophy, and literature, amongst many other things. Alexander the Great is arguably Greece’s most famous son and his dynasty spread as far as India in the 4th century BC. Greece was integrated into the Roman Empire in the 2nd century BC before becoming part of the Byzantine Empire upon the collapse of Rome. This history has led to Greece having some of the greatest ancient wonders of the world such as the Parthenon and the theatre of Epidaurus. In more modern times Greece has been ruled by several factions before gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1822. In recent years, Greece has suffered financial hardship because of the global economic crash but is now on the road to recovery.