The southeastern multicultural country of Europe called Greece is famous for its hospitality and the simple Greek spirit. Even the Urban Greek has deep in his or heart a place for the ancient civilization that Greece has been home for so long.
Although naysayers may assert that the current debt ridden Greece economy is only a shadow of her Glorious past, yet they must know, it can be safely assumed that economic distresses had occurred in ancient Greece too. Greece's continuity with her glorious past thus established, here are some facts about Greece that every backpacking nomad should know of the country.
Located on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece shares her land borders with Turkey to the east and the republics of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north. The country of Albania also shares her borders with the northern part of Greece. Besides these landlocking, the borders of Greece are decorated with shorelines too. The many Greek islands, spread along the coastline of Greece are like precious pearls of the garland of Greece. The country has the tenth longest coastline of the world with a total distance of 14,880 kilometer or 9246 miles. The shoreline of Greece consists of Aegean sea to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian sea to the west and the Mediterranean sea to the south. There are around 1400 islands in Greece, of which 227 are inhabited. Besides the islands and the coastlines, Greece is also a mountainous place, with eighty percent of its land area in the form of mountains. Mount Olympus or the home of the Gods is the highest mountain of Greece at 2,917 meters(9570.21 ft).
The legacy of ancient Greece is an undeniable influence when you travel to Greece. The ancient Greek civilization has been given credits of being the cradle of western philosophy, the Olympic games and Western drama of both tragedy and comedy genre. In addition, the ancient influence of Greece has given way to major branches of study like political science, historiography and many major mathematical and scientific principles. Greece is the home to 17 of the UNESCO world heritage sites.