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Rhodes

Rhodes

:This article is about the Greek island of Rhodes. For other uses, see Rhodes (disambiguation). Rhodes (disambiguation) Rhodes, Greek Ρόδος (Rhodos, Turkish Rodos, Italian Rodhi; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is the largest of the Dodecanese islands, and easternmost of the major islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea. It lies approximately 11 miles (18 km) west of Turkey, situated between the Greek mainland and the island of Cyprus. Its population in 2004 was estimated at 130,000, of which between 55,000 and 60,000 resided permanently in the city of Rhodes, the main commercial and population center. Rhodes is the capital of the District of the Dodecanese and of the Province of Rhodes, which also includes the nearby islands of Symi, Tilos, Halki, and Kastellorizo. Historically, it was known for its Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. The medieval city is a World Heritage Site.

Geography

World Heritage Site The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead, 79.7 km long and 38 km wide with a total area of approximately 1,398 km² and a coastline of approximately 220 km. The city of Rhodes is located at the far northern end of the island, including the site of the ancient and modern commercial harbor. The main air gateway ([http://www.hcaa-eleng.gr/rhod.htm Diagoras International Airport], IATA code: RHO) is located 14 km to the southwest of the city in Paradisi. The road network radiates from the city along the east and west coasts. The flora and fauna is more closely allied to that of Turkey than it is to that of the rest of Greece. The interior is mountainous and sparsely inhabited, covered with forests of Turkish Pine (Pinus brutia) and abundant fauna including the Rhodian deer. Features include the so-called Petaludes or Petaloudes Valley, or Valley of the Butterflies, where tiger moths gather in summer; Mount Attavyros, at 3,986 ft (1,215 m) the island's highest point of elevation; and the appropriately named Seven Springs area. While the shores are rocky, arable sandy strips exist where citrus fruits, wine grapes, vegetables, and other crops flourish in the Mediterranean climate. Outside of the city of Rhodes, the Faliraki resort, Lindos, Archangelos, Afandou, Koskinou, Embona, and Trianta (Ialysos) are significant. The economy of the whole island is geared toward tourism, the island's primary source of income.

History

The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although little remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC the Minoans came to Rhodes, and later Greek mythography recalled a Rhodian race they called the Telchines, and associated Rhodes with Danaus; it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis. In the 15th century the Achaeans invaded. It was, however, in the 11th century that the island started to flourish, with the coming of the Dorians. It was the Dorians who later built the three important cities of Lindos, Ialyssos and Kameiros, which together with Kos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus (on the mainland) made up the so-called Dorian Hexapolis. In Pindar's ode, the island was said to be born of the union of Helios the sun god and the nymph Rhode, and the cities were named for their three sons. The rhoda is a pink hibiscus native to the island. Invasions by the Persians eventually overran the island, but after their defeat by the forces from Athens in 478 BC, the cities joined the Athenian League. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, Rhodes remained largely neutral although it was still a member of the League. The war lasted until 404 BC, but by this time Rhodes had withdrawn entirely from the conflict and had decided to go her own way. In 408 BC the cities united to form one territory, and built a new capital on the northern end of the island, the city of Rhodes: its regular plan was superintended by the Athenian architect Hippodamus. However the Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek culture that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC the island was conquered by Mausolus of Halicarnassus, then fell to the Persians 340 BC. But their rule was also short and Rhodes became a part of the growing empire of Alexander the Great in 332 BC after he defeated the Persians, to the great relief of the citizens of Rhodes. With the death of Alexander his generals fought for control. Three of them, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus, succeeded in dividing the kingdom among themselves. Rhodes formed strong commercial and cultural ties with the Ptolemies in Alexandria, and together they formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance which controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC. The city developed into a maritime, commercial and cultural center and its coins were in circulation almost everywhere in the Mediterranean. Its famous schools of philosophy and science, literature and rhetoric, shared masters with Alexandria: the Athenian rhetorician Aeschines who formed a school at Rhodes; Apollonius of Rhodes, the astronomers Hipparchus and Geminus, the rhetorician Dionysios Trax. Its school of sculptors developed a rich, dramatic style that can be characterized as "Hellenistic Baroque". In 305 BC, Antigonus had his son, Demetrius besiege Rhodes in an attempt to break their alliance with Egypt. Demetrius created huge siege engines including a 180 foot battering ram and a siege tower named Helepolis that weighed 360,000 pounds. Despite all this, after a year he gave up and signed a peace agreement in 304 BC, leaving behind a huge store of military equipment. The Rhodians sold the equipment and used the money to erect a statue of their sun god, Helios, the statue now known as the Colossus of Rhodes. Colossus of Rhodes In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Rome, and became a major schooling center for Roman noble families, and was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric, such as Hermagoras and the author of the Rhetorica ad Herennium. At first the state was an important ally of Rome and enjoyed numerous privileges, but these were later lost in various machinations of Roman politics. Cassius eventually invaded the island and sacked the city. In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief exile on Rhodes, and Saint Paul brought Christianity to the island. In 297, the long Byzantine Empire period began for Rhodes, when the Roman empire was split and the eastern half became a Greek empire. Although part of Byzantium for the next thousand years, it was nevertheless repeatedly attacked by various forces. It was first occupied by Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672. Much later Rhodes was retrieved for the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade. First Crusade In 1309 the Byzantine era came to an end when the island was taken by forces of the Knights Hospitaller. Under the rule of the newly named Knights of Rhodes, the city was rebuilt into a model of the European mediaeval ideal. Many of the city's famous monuments, including the Palace of the Grand Master, were built in this period. The strong walls which the Knights had built withstood the attacks of the Sultan of Egypt in 1444 and of Mehmed II in 1480. Finally, however, Rhodes fell to the large army of Suleiman the Magnificent in December 1522. The few remaining Knights were permitted to retire to Malta, and the island was a possession of the Ottoman Empire for nearly four centuries. In 1912, Rhodes was seized from the Turks by the Italians, and in 1947, together with the other islands of the Dodecanese was united with Greece. It thus bypassed many of the events associated with the "exchange of the minorities" between Greece and Turkey. Throughout much of its history Rhodes had a thriving Jewish Community. From the 1500's on most of this community were Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) speakers. During World War II Nazi Germany occupied the island and deported the Jews. Most ended up dying in various concentration camps. A remnant of the Jewish community survives in Rhodes. The [http://www.rhodesjewishmuseum.org/ Rhodes Jewish Museum] maintains a history of the community. Descendants of the "Rhodeslies" now have communities in various parts of the U.S., Europe and Africa. Category:Rhetoric

External links

- [http://www.rhodos-travel.com/english.htm www.rhodos-travel.com/english.htm] Rhodes Travel Revue
- [http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=36.164246,27.917633&spn=0.664055,0.936722&t=k&hl=en Satellite picture by Google Maps]
- [http://www.losttrails.com/pages/Hproject/Rhodes/Rhodes.html photo-essay on the archaeology of Rhodes]
- [http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/rhodes Flickr: Photos tagged with rhodes], photos likely of Rhodes
- [http://www.rhodes3d.com www.rhodes3d.com] Game recreating medieval Rhodes, Lindos Category:Islands of Greece Category:Achaean colonies Category:Dorian colonies ja:ロードス島

Rhodes (disambiguation)

The name Rhodes can refer to:

- any one of several place names:
- the Greek Dodecanese island of Rhodes, where the Colossus of Rhodes stood
- the town of Rhodes, the main settlement on the island of Rhodes
- Rhodes, New South Wales, Australia
- Rhodes, Iowa, United States of America

- any one of several institutions of higher education:
- Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee
- Rhodes State College in Lima, Ohio
- Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa

- any one of a number of persons:
- Anthony Rhodes, journalist and author of The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators
- Arthur Rhodes, a player in Major League Baseball
- Cecil Rhodes
- Dominic Rhodes, a player in the National Football League
- Donnelly Rhodes, a Canadian television actor
- Elvi Rhodes, a British author
- Gary Rhodes, a celebrity chef for the BBC
- Jonty Rhodes, a South African cricket player
- Orville 'Red' Rhodes, a pedal steel guitar player
- Philip Rhodes, a prolific boat designer who designed the 1962 America's Cup winner, Weatherly.
- Phillip Rhodes, a drummer for the Gin Blossoms
- Randi Rhodes, a talk radio host
- Rufus R. Rhodes, Chief Clerk of the Confederate Patent Office, 1861-1865
- Rufus N. Rhodes, founder of the Birmingham News, and Vice-President of the Associated Press

- other uses
- Rhodes Scholarship
- the Rhodes piano
- Rhodes Furniture

Turkish language

Turkish (Türkçe) is a Turkic language spoken natively in Turkey, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Bulgaria, as well as by several million immigrants in the European Union. The number of native speakers is uncertain, primarily due to a lack of minority language data from Turkey. The figure of 60 million used here assumes that Turkish is the mother tongue of 80% of the Turkish population, with making up most of the remainder. (Linguistic minorities in Turkey are, however, bilingual in Turkish.) There is a high degree of mutual intelligibility between Turkish and other Oghuz languages such as Azeri, , and . If these are counted together as "Turkish", the number of native speakers is 100 million, and the total number including second-language speakers is around 125 million.

Classification

Turkish is a member of the Turkish family of languages, which includes Balkan Gagauz Turkish, Gagauz, and Khorasani Turkish in addition to Osmanli Turkish. The Turkish family is a subgroup of the Oghuz languages, themselves a subgroup of the Turkic languages, which most linguists believe to be member of an Altaic language family. Like Finnish and Hungarian, Turkish has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually Subject Object Verb. Turkish has a T-V distinction: second-person plural forms can be used for individuals as a sign of respect.

Geographic distribution

Turkish is spoken in Turkey and by minorities in 35 other countries. In particular, Turkish is used in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire, such as Bulgaria, Romania, the former Yugoslavia (specifically in the Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohija on a local level), and the Republic of Macedonia.

Official status

Turkish is the official language of Turkey, and is one-although today it is less spoken- of the official languages of Cyprus. It is also an official or national language in Bulgaria. In Turkey, the Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil Kurumu) was founded by Kemal Atatürk in 1932 as the Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for the Investigation of the Turkish Language"), an independent body. In August, 1983, when Turkey was under martial law as a result of the military coup of 1980, the Turkish Language Society was brought under the control of the prime ministry.

Dialects

Dialects of Turkish include Danubian, Eskişehir (spoken in Eskişehir Province), Razgrad, Dinler, Rumelian, Karamanlı (spoken in Karaman Province), Edirne (spoken in Edirne), Gaziantep (spoken in Gaziantep Province), Urfa (spoken in Şanlıurfa Province), and Goynuk (a village in Bolu).

Sounds

One characteristic feature of Turkish is vowel harmony. For example, if the first vowel of a Turkish word is a front vowel, the second and other vowels of the same word are usually the same vowel or another front vowel: vişne "sour cherry": i is close unround front, e is open unround front. Stress is usually on the last syllable, with the exception of some suffix combinations and words like masa ['masa].

Consonants

The phoneme usually refered to as "soft g", "ğ" in Turkish orthography, actually represents a rather weak front-velar or palatal approximant between front vowels. When it is word-final or preceding another consonant it lengthens the preceding vowel. In all other positions, it is not pronounced at all.

Vowels

Grammar

Turkish has an abundance of suffixes, but no prefixes (apart from the reduplicating intensifier prefix as in beyaz="white", bembeyaz="very white", sıcak="hot", sımsıcak="very hot"). (Some Arabic loan words have their own prefixes, but those are the common prefixes of Arabic.) One word can have many suffixes. Suffixes can be used to create new words (see #Vocabulary) or to indicate the grammatical function of a word. Turkish nouns can take endings indicating the person of a possessor. They can take case-endings, as in Latin. (The series of case-endings is the same for every noun, except for spelling changes owing to vowel harmony, and variation between voiced and unvoiced consonants.) Finally, they can take endings that give them a person and make them into sentences: ev "house", eviniz "your house", evinizde "at your house", Evinizdeyiz "We are at your house." Turkish adjectives as such are not declined (though they can generally be used as nouns, in which case they are declined). Used attributively, they precede the nouns they modify. Turkish verbs exhibit person. They can be made negative or impotential; they can also be made potential. Finally, Turkish verbs exhibit various distinctions of tense, mood, and aspect: a verb can be progressive, necessitative, aorist, future, inferential, present, past, conditional, imperative, or optative. gel- "(to) come", gelme- "not (to) come", geleme- "not (to) be able to come", gelebil- "(to) be able to come", Gelememiş "She [or he] was apparently unable to come." Gelememişti "She had not been able to come." Gelememiştiniz "You (pl) had not been able to come." Gelememiş miydiniz? "Was it the case that you (pl) were not able to come?" All Turkish verbs are conjugated the same way, except for the irregular and defective verb i- (see Turkish copula), which can be used in compound forms: Gelememişti = Gelememiş idi = Gelememiş + i- + -di Word order in Turkish is generally Subject Object Verb, as in Japanese and Latin, but not English. This can be seen in the following sentence from a newspaper (Cumhuriyet, 16 August 2005, p. 1). The sentence uses all noun cases except the genitive: Türkiye'de modayı gazete sayfalarına taşıyan, gazetemiz yazarlarından N. S. yaşamını yitirdi: Türkiye'de "in Turkey" (locative) modayı "fashion" (accusative of moda) gazete "newspaper" (nominative) sayfalarına "to its pages" (dative; sayfa "page", sayfalar "pages", sayfaları "its pages") taşıyan, "carrying" (present participle of taşı-) gazetemiz "our newspaper" (nominative) yazarlarından "from its writers" (ablative; yazar "writer") N. S. [person's name] (nominative) yaşamını "her life" (accusative; yaşam "life") yitirdi. "lost" (past tense of yitir- "lose" from yit- "be lost") "One of the writers of our newspaper, N. S., who brought fashion to newspaper pages in Turkey, lost her life."

Vocabulary

Turkish has the resources for building up many new words from old: from nouns: göz "eye", gözlük "eyeglasses" gözlükçü "someone who sells glasses" gözlükçülük "the business of selling glasses" and from verbs: yat- "lie down" yatır- "lay down [that is, cause to lie down]" yatırım "instance of laying down: deposit, investment" yatırımcı "depositor, investor". Turkish vocabulary has gone through drastic changes in the history of the language. In the last sixty years, Turkish vocabulary has gone through changes that might take three centuries in another language.

Replaced old words

When the Turks came from middle Asia to Anatolia about a thousand years ago, they came in contact with Islam and the Arabic societies. Since the Turks accepted Islam, Arabic words (and fewer, Persian words) started infiltrating the language. During the course of over six hundred years of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish kept borrowing loan words from these two languages. Towards the end of the 19th century, this got to a point where the language was rather called the Ottoman language. This is because Turkish had been inundated with so many loan words that the language became a mix of Turkish, Arabic and Persian. In contemporary Turkey, the Ottoman language is almost incomprehensible. After Atatürk founded the Republic of Turkey, he established the "Turkish Language Foundation" (Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK), whose task was to replace Arabic and Persian origin words with their new Turkish counterparts. The foundation succeeded in removing several hundred Arabic words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by TDK are new, TDK also suggested using old Turkish words which had not been used in the language for centuries. Older and younger people in Turkey tend to express themselves with different vocabulary. While the generations born up to the 1940s tend to use the old Arabic origin words (even the obsolete ones), the younger generations favor using the new expressions. Some new words are not used as often as their old counterparts or have failed to convey the intrinsic meanings of their old equivalents. Among some of the old words that were replaced are terms in geometry, directions (north, south, east, west), some of the months and many nouns and adjectives. Many new words have also been derived from verbs. Some examples of new and their old counterparts are: Please see List of replaced loan words in Turkish for an extensive list of replaced old words and current loan words

Writing system

Turkish is written using a modified version of the Latin alphabet, which was introduced in 1928 by Kemal Atatürk as part of his efforts to modernize Turkey. Until 1928, Turkish was written using a modified version of the Arabic alphabet (see Ottoman Turkish language), but use of the Arabic alphabet was outlawed after the Latin alphabet was introduced. See Turkish alphabet.

The language in daily life

Turkish has many formulaic expressions for various social situations. Several of them feature Arabic verbal nouns together with the Turkish verb et- ("make, do"). A famous quotation and motto of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk:
- Yurtta sulh, cihanda sulh "Peace at home, peace in the world." In the current language, this is
- Yurtta barış, dünyada barış.

References

- International Phonetic Association (1999) Handbook of the International Phonetic Association ISBN 0-521-63751-1
-
-
-

External links

- [http://groups.yahoo.com/group/turkishlearner/ A discussion list for the learners of Turkish]
- [http://www.langtolang.com/ Langtolang Turkish, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Swedish, Danish, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Finnish, Esperanto, Swahili, Serbo_Croat Multilingual Dictionary]
- [http://www.turkce-ingilizce.com/ Turkish-English and English-Turkish Online Dictionary]
- [http://www.123lasvegas.info Free turkish dictionary.]
- [http://www.tdk.org.tr/TDKSOZLUK/SOZBUL.ASP Turkish to Turkish Dictionary.]
- [http://turkisaretdili.ku.edu.tr Turkish to Turkish Sign Language (TID) Visual Dictionary]
- [http://www.turkishclass.com Learn Turkish language online.]
- [http://www.fdicts.com/dictlist1.php?k1=97 All free Turkish dictionaries]
- [http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=TRK Ethnologue report for Turkish]
- [http://www.onlineturkish.com onlineturkish.com]
- [http://www.weberberg.de/infoport/tuerkisch Free online Turkish course written in German ]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/translation/Turkish/ Dictionary] with Turkish - English Translations from [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org Webster's Online Dictionary] - the Rosetta Edition
- [http://www.zargan.com.tr/ Online Turkish-English/English-Turkish dictionary]
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Turkish-english/ Turkish - English Dictionary]
- [http://www.langtolang.com/ A comprehensive and accurate Turkish-(English/French/Italian/and various other languages) dictionary]
- [http://aton.ttu.edu Texas Tech University, Archive of Turkish Oral Narrative]
- [http://www.turkcebilgi.com/T%FCrk%E7e An Information site in Turkish Language]
- [http://www.ipb.nu/winmekmak/ WinMekMak - Turkish Verb Conjugator]
- [http://www.turkishlanguage.co.uk/pf.htm The best site for learning Turkish with detailed explanations]
- [http://www.turkishdictionary.net/ Turkish dictionary available for use in various forms]
- [http://miejipang.homestead.com/untitled18.html Let's try to learn Hungarian(Magyar) and Turkish!] Category:Languages of Turkey Category:Languages of Cyprus Category:Languages of the Republic of Macedonia Category:Agglutinative languages Category:Vowel harmony languages category:Turkic languages ja:トルコ語 th:ภาษาตุรกี

List of traditional Greek place names

This is a list of traditional Greek place names. That is, a list of the names of places as they exist in the Greek language. This list includes:
- Places involved in the history of Greek culture—including Ancient Greece, the Hellenistic world, the Roman Empire, the New Testament, the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire and modern Greece and Cyprus, as well as important Greek-speaking minorities—and the Greek language names given to them.
- Places whose official names include a Greek form.
- Places whose names originate from the Greek language, even if they were never involved in Greek history or culture. Though this list includes toponyms from Roman times, this list does not include later wholly Latin-derived names that have no Greek linguistic involvement nor significant Greek-speaking communities. A notable exception may be places such as Australia, which has one of the largest modern Greek-speaking communities outside Greece and Cyprus. Both koine and modern forms and transliterations (including polytonic spellings) are listed if available. This list is incomplete, and some items in the list lack academic detail. As a historical linguistics article, this list is an academic lexicon for the history of Greek place names, and is not a formal dictionary nor gazetteer and should not be relied upon as such. Indeed, many toponyms in Modern Greek now have different names than were used in by Greek-speaking communities in the past. An example is Malta, which was called Μελίτη (Melítē) and was once home to a Greek-speaking community. However, this community is gone or assimilated, and the common Modern Greek name is Μάλτα (Málta, from Maltese). However, in other cases, Modern Greek has retained archaic names (sometimes with grammatical modifications). An example of this is Naples, Italy, originally a Greek colony that is now Romance-speaking. The Classical Greek name was Νεάπολις (Neápolis), different from the modern local name (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan Napule), but the Modern Greek name is Νεάπολη (Neápoli), a direct evolution of the classical name. Distinctly Greek names are also largely retained for places without significant modern Greek populations that had a larger Greek-speaking presence until relatively recent times in history, including many areas in what are now Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Russia, the Ukraine and the Crimea.

Contents
- Format - The list - Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

__NOTOC__

Format

The names presented are in presented in a variety of standard formats, including Classical Greek spelling, scientific transliteration of the Classical Greek, standard Modern Greek, and with its two influential standards—the United Nations transliteration standard and the United States Board on Geographic Names transcription standard. The U.N. standard is more often used in maps and diplomatic purposes, while the U.S. B.G.N. standard is used in U.S. government maps of Greece and Cyprus, and often by Greek immigrants in English-speaking countries, and is also widely used for English-speaking tourists in Greek-speaking countries.
- , , [, (),] . English.

The list

Α

- , , (), .
- , , (), . Agde.
- , , (), . Ankara.
- , , , (), . Adrianople; Edirne.
- , , , , . Athens.
- , , , (), . Aegean Sea.
- , , () . Egypt.
- , , (), . Ethiopia.
- , , , (), . Aeolis.
- , , (), . Etna.
- , , (), . Aetolia.
- , , . Acarnania.
- , , (), . Agrigentum.
- , , , .
- , , (), . Alexandria.
- , , (), . İskenderun.
- , , , . Halicarnassus; Bodrum.
- , , , , .
- , , , . Anatolia.
- , , (), .
- , , , (), . Antarctica.
- , , (), . Antioch; Antakya.
- , , (), . Antipaxos; Antipaxi.
- , , , (), . Antibes.
- , , (), . Apulia.
- , , , .
- , , , (), .
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Arcadia.
- , , .
- , , .
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Attica.
- , (), . Atlantic.
- , , , .
- , , , . Africa.
- , , (), . Achaea.

Β

- , , (), .
- , , (), .
- , , , . Bactria.
- , , , . Venice.
- , , (), . Beirut.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Wallachia.
- , , (), . Boeotia.
- , , , . Bosporus.
- , , (), . Bulgaria.
- , , , , . Britannia; Britain.
- , , , (), . Byzantium.

Γ

- , , (), . Cádiz.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Gaul; France.
- , , (), . Germany.
- , , (), .

Δ

- , , (), . Dacia; modern Romania.
- , (), . Dardanelles.
- , , (), . Delphi.
- , , , (), . Dyrrachium; Durrës.
- , , (), . Dodecanese.

Ε

- , , (), . Elea.
- , , , . Helvetia; Switzerland.
- , , , .
- , , , (), . Greece.
- , , (), . Hellespont.
- , , , (), . Empúries.
- , , (), .
- , , , . Heptanese.
- , , .
- , , (), . Red Sea.
- , , (), . Eritrea.
- , , (), . Euboea.
- , , (), . Euxine Sea.
- , , , . Euripus.
- , , , . Europe.
- , , , . Ephesus.

Ζ

- , , (), . First Greek name for Messina.
- , , (), . Zante.

Η

- , , (), . Epirus.
- , , (), . Heraclea.

Θ

- , , (), .
- , , . Thessaly.
- , , , .
- , , , , . Thebes.
- , , , .
- , , (), . Thurii.
- , , , . Thrace.

Ι

- , (), .
- , , , .
- , , (), Jericho.
- , , (), . Jerusalem.
- , , (), . Jerusalem (alternate name).
- , , , . Ithaca.
- , , . Icaria.
- , , , , . Iconium; Konya.
- , , (), .
- , , , . Gökçeada.
- , , , (), .
- , , (), .
- , , , , . Ionian Islands.
- , , (), . Judea.
- , , , . Spain.
- , , (), .
- , , . Italy.
- , , , .

Κ

- , , (), . Caesarea.
- , , , . Calabria.
- , , , (), . Gallipoli; Gelibolu.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Campania.
- , , (), . Cappadocia.
- , , . Caria.
- , , . Carpathia.
- , , .
- , , (), . Carthage.
- , , . Caspia.
- , , , . Catania.
- , , (), . Corfu.
- , , , , .
- , , , , . Ceos.
- , , . Cilicia.
- , , (), .
- , , , , . Cnossus.
- , , , . Colophon.
- , , . Corinth.
- , , , . Crete.
- , , , . Croton.
- , , (), . Cyzicus.
- , , (), . Cythera; Cerigo.
- , , (), . Cyclades.
- , , (), . Cyme.
- , , (), . Cyprus.
- , , (), . Cyrenaica.
- , , (), . Cyrene.
- , , , (), . Constantinople; İstanbul.
- , , , .

Λ

- , , , . Laconia.
- , , .
- , , (), . Lampsacus.
- , , (), . Laodicea; Latakia.
- , , , .
- , , , (), . Leucas.
- , , , . Leucosia; Nicosia.
- , , , . Lebanon.
- , , (), . Libya.
- , , (), .
- , , , (), . Locris.
- , , (), . Locri.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Lycia.

Μ

- , , (), .
- , , . Macedonia.
- , , , . Macedon.
- , , . Marseille.
- , , , . Mauritania.
- , , , (), . Montenegro.
- , , (), .
- , , , (), .
- , , , .
- , , , . Malta, but the modern Greek name for Malta is a direct adaptation of the modern name.
- , , . Iraq.
- , , , . Messina.
- , , , .
- , , (), .
- , , , .
- , , , . Micronesia.
- , , , . Miletus.
- , , (), . Moesia.
- , , (), . Monaco.
- , , , (), . Mycenae.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Original Aeolian name for what later became Ionian Smyrna and Turkish İzmir.
- , , (), .
- , , , . Morea.

Ν

- , , , .
- , , , , .
- , , , , . Naples; Nablus.
- , , (), . Nicaea; İznik; Nice.
- , , , , . Nicopolis.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Numidia.

Ξ

Ο

Π

- , , (), .
- , , (), . Paxos.
- , , (), . Palestine.
- , , (), .
- , , . Palermo.
- , , , (), . Panticapaeum.
- , , .
- , , , , . Paris.
- , , .
- , , , , .
- , , (), .
- , , , . Peloponnese.
- , , .
- , , (), .
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Pontus.
- , , , (), .
- , , (), . Bursa.

Ρ

- , , , (), . Reggio di Calabria.
- , , (), . Rhodes.
- , , , . Byzantine Empire. (Not modern Romania.)
- , , , . Rome.

Σ

- , , (), . Samaria.
- , , .
- , , (), . Samsun.
- , , (), .
- , , , (), . Sevastopol.
- , , (), . Seleucia.
- , , , .
- , , . Sicily.
- , , , . Sinop.
- , , (), . Scythia.
- , , (), . Smyrna; İzmir.
- , , , .
- , , , . Sparta.
- , , (), .
- , , , (), . Syracuse.
- , , (), .

Τ

- , , . Taranto.
- , , . Tarsus.
- , , (), . Bozcaada.
- , , , .
- , , , .
- , , , (), .
- , , (), . Turkey.
- , , (), . Trebizond; Trabzon.
- , , , , .
- , , (), . Troy.
- , , , (), .

Υ

Φ

- , , , (), .
- , , (), . Philadelphia.
- , , , (), . Philippines.
- , , (), . Phoenicia; Canaan.
- , , (), .
- , , (), . Phocaea; Foça.
- , , , (), . Phocis.

Χ

- , , (), . Chaeronea.
- , , (), . Chalcedon; Kadıköy.
- , , , (), . Chalcis.
- , , (), . Chersonesos.
- , , (), .

Ψ

Ω

- , , , . Oceania. Category:Hellenic languages and dialects Greek traditional place names Category:Incomplete lists

Greece

Greece, (Greek: Ελλάδα, older form: Ελλάς, Hellas), officially the Hellenic Republic (Greek: Ελληνική Δημοκρατία, Ellinikí Dimokratía; see also List of traditional Greek place names), is a country in southern Europe on the tip of the Balkan peninsula. It has land boundaries with Bulgaria, The Republic of Macedonia, and Albania to the north and with Turkey to the east. The waters of the Aegean Sea border Greece to the east, and those of the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea to the west and south. Regarded by many as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, Greece has a long and rich history during which its culture has proven especially influential in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East.

Name

Main article: Names of the Greeks The historical name of Greece in Greek is Ellás . This name is also written Hellas in English, following the ancient Greek pronunciation . In modern Greek it is called more commonly Ελλάδα Elládha . The mythical ancestor of the Greeks is the eponymous Hellen. The name of Greece in European languages (English: Greece, French: Grèce, Portuguese: Grécia, Spanish and Italian: Grecia, Welsh: Groeg, German: Griechenland, Dutch: Griekenland, Russian: Греция, etc.) comes from a different root: Graikós (via Latin Graecus) which according to Aristotle was an ancient name for the Greeks. The Japanese name is ギリシャ (Girisha), lent from European languages. On the other hand, the name of Greece in some Middle Eastern and Eastern languages (Turkish: Yunanistan, Arabic: يونان, Hebrew: יוון, ancient Persian: Yaunâ, Indian Pali: Yona, Malay and Indonesian: Yunani) derives from the Greek toponym Iōnía. Norwegian, Chinese (希腊 Xila) and Vietnamese are three of the few languages apart from Greek in which the name Hellas predominates. An interesting and unique form is kept in Georgian. In ancient times, Georgians (Colchs and Iberians) called Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni. This form derives from the Georgian word ბრძენი brdzeni – wise. According to Georgian historians, the name is connected with the notion that philosophy was born in Greece. Modern Georgians still call Greeks ბერძენი berdzeni and Greece საბერძნეთი saberdznet'i, 'Greeks' land' or literally 'land of the wise'. Some Greeks prefer the name Hellas for the country and Hellenes for the people even in English. See Hellenes for discussion.

History

Hellenes Main Article: History of Greece.

Prehistory and antiquity

The shores of Greece's Aegean Sea saw the emergence of the first civilizations in Europe, namely the Minoan and the Mycenaean. After these, a Dark Age followed until around 800 BC, when a new era of Greek city-states emerged establishing colonies along the Mediterranean. Greek culture would later become the basis of the Hellenistic civilization that followed the empire of Alexander the Great. For a detailed history of Ancient Greece see the relevant articles in: History of Greece.

Roman rule and Middle Ages

Militarily, Greece itself declined to the point that the Romans conquered the land (168 BC onwards), though, in many ways, Greek culture would in turn conquer Roman life. Greece became a province of the Roman Empire, but Greek culture continued to dominate the eastern Mediterranean. When the Roman Empire finally split in two, the Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, centered around Constantinople (known in ancient times as Byzantium), remained Greek in nature, encompassing Greece itself. From the 4th century to the 15th century, the Byzantine Empire survived eleven centuries of attacks from the north, west and east until Constantinople fell on May 29 1453 to the Ottoman Empire, when Constantine XI, the last emperor of the Palaeologus dynasty, fell. Greece was gradually conquered by the Ottomans during the 15th century.

Ottoman rule

While the Ottomans completed the conquest of the Greek Mainland, two Greek migrations occurred. The first migration saw the Greek intelligentsia migrate to Western Europe and contribute to the advent of the Renaissance. The second migration of Greeks left the plains of the Greek peninsula and resettled in the mountains. The Ottomans were unable to create a permanent military and administrative presence in these mountainous regions. As a result some Greek mountain clans across the peninsula, as well as some islands, were able to maintain a status of independence. The Sphakiots of Crete, the Souliots from Souli of Epirus, and the Maniots from Mani of Peloponnesus were the most resilient mountain clans throughout the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the 16th century and until the 17th century, Greeks began to migrate back to the plains and cities, adding to the increasing urban population. The millet system contributed to the ethnic cohesion of Orthodox Greeks by segregating the various peoples within the Ottoman Empire based on religion. The Orthodox Church, a religious institution with a strong national character, helped the Greeks from all geographical areas of the peninsula (i.e. mountains, plains, and islands) to preserve their ethnic, cultural and linguistic heritage during the years of the Ottoman rule (although at the time it was not stictly speaking a "Greek" church - the Greek Church was instituted after the liberation). The Greeks who remained on the plains during Ottoman occupation were either Christians, who dealt with the burdens of foreign rule, or to a considerable extent Crypto-Christians (Greeks Muslims who were secret practitioners of the Orthodox faith) in order to avoid heavy taxation. The Greeks who converted to Islam and were not Crypto-Christians became Turks in the eyes of Orthodox Greeks. There were no "Greek Muslims", and no "Christian Turks". As a result, religion played an integral part in the formation of the Modern Greek and other post-Ottoman national identities. Turks

Creation of the modern Greek state

The Ottomans ruled Greece until the early 19th century. In 1821, the Greeks rebelled and declared their independence, but did not succeed in winning it until 1829. The elites of powerful European nations saw the war of Greek independence, with its accounts of Turkish atrocities, in a romantic light (see, for example, the 1824 painting the Massacre of Chios by Eugène Delacroix). Scores of non-Greeks volunteered to fight for the cause — including people like Lord Byron. At times the Ottomans seemed on the verge of entirely suppressing the Greek revolution but were eventually forced to give in by the direct military intervention of France, Great Britain and Russia. This was the prelude of the so called "Eastern Question", the gradual dismemberment of the decaying empire by the western powers. The Russian ex-minister of foreign affairs, Ioannis Kapodistrias, himself a Greek, actually a noble from the Ionian Islands, a British protectorate in the Ionian Sea, was chosen as President of the new Republic following Greek independence. That republic disappeared when a few years later Western powers helped turn Greece into a monarchy, the first king coming from Bavaria and the second from Denmark. During the 19th and especially the early 20th centuries, in a series of wars with the Ottomans, Greece sought to enlarge its boundaries to include the ethnic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire (the Ionian State however was donated by Britain upon the arrival of the new king from Denmark in 1863, and Thessaly was ceded by the Ottomans without a fight). Greece would slowly grow in territory and population until reaching its present configuration in 1947. In World War I, Greece sided with the entente powers against Turkey and the other Central Powers. In the war's aftermath, the Great Powers awarded parts of Asia Minor to Greece, including the city of Smyrna (known as Izmir today) which had a large Greek population. At that time, however, the Turkish nationalists, led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, denounced the Sultan's government in Istanbul and organised a new one in Ankara. During the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) the Turks eventually defeated the Greek armies and regained control of Asia Minor. Soon afterwards, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed, fixing the borders to this date. A population exchange was included in the agreement and immediately afterwards, hundreds of thousands of Turks then living in mainland Greek territory left for Turkey in exchange for about a million Greeks living in Turkey. The refugees from Asia Minor revived the population, provided cheap labour and hellenized the now depopulated regions, especially in Macedonia. In 1936, General Ioannis Metaxas established an authoritarian conservative dictatorship in Greece, seen as similar to Antonio Salazar's "New State". Greece under Metaxas is also compared to Spain at the time, although it lacked the political violence associated with Francisco Franco's regime. Despite the country's numerically small and ill-equipped armed forces, Greece made an important contribution to the Allied efforts in World War II. At the start of the war Greece sided with the Allies and refused to give in to Italian demands (see Oxi Day). Italy invaded Greece on 28 October 1940, but Greek troops repelled the invaders after a bitter struggle (see Greco-Italian War). This marked the first Allied victory in the war. Hitler then reluctantly stepped in, primarily to secure his strategic southern flank. Troops from Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy successfully invaded Greece, overcoming Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand units within weeks. To reduce the threat of a counter-offensive by Allied forces in Egypt, the Germans attempted to seize Crete in a massive attack by paratroops. Allied forces, along with Cretan civilians, however, offered fierce resistance. Although Crete eventually fell, it is pointed out by historians that this, and the whole Greek campaign, delayed German plans significantly, with the result that the German invasion of the Soviet Union started fatally close to winter. During the years of Nazi occupation, hundreds of thousands of Greeks died in direct combat, in concentration camps, or of starvation. The occupiers murdered the greater part of the Jewish community despite efforts by the Greek Orthodox Church and many Christian Greeks to shelter Jews. The Greek economy languished. After liberation, Greece experienced an equally bitter Greek Civil War between the communist-led Democratic Army and the Hellenic Army that lasted until 1949, when the communists were defeated in the battle of Grammos-Vitsi. In the 1950s and 1960s, Greece continued to develop slowly with grants and loans through the Marshall Plan, and later through growth, notably in the tourism sector. In 1967, the Greek military seized power in a coup d'état and overthrew the conservative government of Panayiotis Kanellopoulos which had been preparing a general election set for May 28. The military established what became known as the Régime of the Colonels. In 1973, the régime abolished the Greek monarchy. In October 1973, George Papadopoulos appointed politician Spiros Markezinis as Prime Minister, with a mission undertake a transition to parliamentary democracy. Following the events of the Athens Polytechnic uprising, Papadopoulos and Markezinis were overthrown by a countercoup headed by junta hardliner Brigadier Ioannides on November 25, 1973. A new president, Phaedon Ghizikis, and a new Prime Minister, Adamantios Androutsopoulos, were appointed. Ioannides organised a military coup against President Makarios of Cyprus, which was considered a pretext for the first Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 and the resulting crisis between Greece and Turkey. Escalation in Cyprus led to the implosion of the military régime. Ex-premier Konstantinos Karamanlis was invited from Paris as interim prime minister under President Ghizikis. He later gained re-election for two further terms at the head of the conservative Nea Dimokratia party, which he founded. In 1975, following a referendum to confirm the deposition of King Constantine II, a democratic republican constitution came into force. Another previously exiled politician, Andreas Papandreou also returned and founded the socialist PASOK party, which won the elections in 1981 and dominated the country's political course for almost two decades. Since the restoration of democracy, the stability and economic prosperity of Greece have grown. Greece joined the European Union in 1981 and adopted the Euro as its currency in 2001. New infrastructure, funds from the EU and growing revenues from tourism, shipping, services, light industry, and the telecommunications industry have greatly raised the standard of living in Greece. Tensions continue to exist between Greece and Turkey over Cyprus and the delimitation of borders in the Aegean Sea, but relations have thawed considerably following successive earthquakes - first in Turkey and then in Greece - and an outpouring of sympathy and generous assistance by ordinary Greeks and Turks. This is in stark contrast to decades of hostility between these two countries, which saw repeated threats of war. Even though both were members of NATO, at times more than half of the entire Greek military was positioned against Turkey. In recent years, Greece has become one of the chief advocates of Turkey's application to join the European Union. The 2004 Summer Olympic Games were held in Athens, returning to Greece for the first time since their modern inception in 1896. Despite widespread initial concerns over the city's ability to meet construction deadlines as well as over its ability to handle a potential terrorist threat, the Athens Games were widely praised as a success [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3610014.stm].

Politics

Main article: Politics of Greece The 1975 constitution includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties. The President of the Republic, elected by an increased majority of the Parliament for a term of five years, is nominally the Head of State. However, it is the prime minister and cabinet that play the central role in the political process, while the president performs very limited governmental functions, in addition to ceremonial duties. Greeks elect the 300 members of the country's unicameral parliament (the Vouli ton Ellinon) by secret ballot for a maximum of four years, but elections can occur at more frequent intervals. Greece uses a complex reinforced proportional representation electoral system which discourages splinter parties and ensures that the party which leads in the national vote will win a majority of seats. A party must receive 3% of the total national vote to gain representation. Greek parliamentary politics hinge upon the principle of the "dedilomeni", the "declared confidence" of Parliament to the Prime Minister and his/her administration. This means that the President of the Republic is bound to appoint as Prime Minister a person who will be approved by a majority of the Parilament's members (i.e. 151 votes). With the current electoral system, it is the leader of the party gaining a plurality of the votes in the Parliamentary elections who gets appointed Prime Minister. An administration may, at any time, seek a "vote of confidence"; conversely, a number of Members of Parilament may ask that a "vote of reproach" be taken. Both are rare occurrences with usually predictable outcomes as voting outside the party line happens very seldom. For a list of Greek political parties, see List of political parties in Greece.

Local government

Main article: Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Peripheries of Greece Greece consists of 13 administrative regions known as peripheries, which subdivide further into the 51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos):

- Attica:
- Attica
- Central Greece:
- Boeotia
- Euboea
- Evrytania
- Phocis
- Phthiotis
- Central Macedonia
- Chalcidice
- Imathia
- Kilkis
- Pella
- Pieria
- Serres
- Thessaloniki

- Crete
- Chania
- Heraklion
- Lasithi
- Rethymno
- East Macedonia and Thrace
- Drama
- Evros
- Kavala
- Rhodope
- Xanthi
- Epirus
- Arta
- Ioannina
- Preveza
- Thesprotia

- Ionian Islands
- Corfu
- Kefalonia
- Lefkada
- Zakynthos
- North Aegean
- Chios
- Lesbos
- Samos
- Peloponnese
- Arcadia
- Argolis
- Corinthia
- Laconia
- Messinia

- South Aegean
- Cyclades
- Dodecanese
- Thessaly
- Karditsa
- Larissa
- Magnesia
- Trikala
- West Greece
- Achaea
- Aetolia-Acarnania
- Elis
- West Macedonia
- Florina
- Grevena
- Kastoria
- Kozani

Beyond these one autonomous region exists: Mount Athos (Agio Oros - Holy Mountain), a monastic state under Greek sovereignty. The 51 nomoi subdivide into 147 eparchies (singular eparchia), which contain 1,033 municipalities and communities: 900 urban municipalities (demoi) and 133 rural communities (koinotetes). Before 1999, Greece's local government structure featured 5,775 local authorities: 457 demoi and 5,318 koinotetes, subdivided into 12,817 localities (oikosmoi).

Geography

Main article: Geography of Greece Geography of Greece Geography of Greece] Geography of Greece The country consists of a large mainland at the southern end of the Balkans; the Peloponnesus peninsula (separated from the mainland by the canal of the Isthmus of Corinth); and numerous islands (around 3,000), including Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Euboea and the Dodecanese and Cycladic groups of the Aegean Sea as well as the Ionian sea islands. Greece has more than 15,000 kilometres of coastline and a land boundary of 1,160 kilometres. About 80% of Greece consists of mountains or hills, thus making Greece one of the most montainous countries of Europe. Western Greece contains lakes and wetlands. Pindus, the central mountain range, has a maximum elevation of 2,636 m. The Pindus can be considered as a prolongation of the Dinaric Alps. The range continues by means of the Peloponnese, the islands of Kythera and Antikythera to find its final point in the island of Crete. (Actually the islands of the Aegean are peaks of underwater mountains that once consisted an extension of the mainland). The Central and Western Greece area contains high, steep peaks dissected by many canyons and other karstic landscapes, including the Meteora and the Vikos gorge the later being the second largest one on earth after the Grand Canyon in the US. Mount Olympus forms the highest point in Greece at 2,919 m above sea level. Also northern Greece presents another high range, the Rhodope, located in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace; this area is covered with vast and thick century old forests like the famous Dadia. Plains are mainly found in Eastern Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Thrace. Greece's climate is divided into three well defined classes the Mediterranean, Alpine and Temperate, the first one features mild, wet winters and hot, dry summers. Temperatures rarely reach extremes, although snowfalls do occur occasionally even in Athens, Cyclades or Crete during the winter. Alpine is found primarily in Western Greece (Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, Western Macedonia as well as central parts of Peloponessus like Achaea, Arkadia and parts of Lakonia where the Alpine range pass by). Finally the temperate climate is found in Central and Eastern Macedonia as well as in Thrace at places like Komotini, Xanthi and northern Evros; with cold, damp winters and hot, dry summers. It's worth to mention that Athens is located in a transition area between the Mediterranean and Alpine climate, thus finding that in its southern suburbs weather is of Mediterranean type while in the Northern suburbs of the Alpine type. About 50% of Greek land is covered by forests with a rich varied vegetation which spans from Alpine coniferous to mediterranean type vegetation. Seals, sea turtles and other rare marine life live in the seas around Greece, while Greece's forests provide a home to Western Europe's last brown bears and lynx as well as other species like Wolf, Roe Deer, Wild Goat, Fox and Wild Boar among others.

Economy

Main article: Economy of Greece Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for about half of GDP. Tourism has great importance, providing a large portion of GDP and foreign exchange earnings. Greece also counts as a world leader in shipping (first in terms of ownership of vessels and third by flag registration) [http://www.marad.dot.gov/MARAD_statistics/Country-MFW-7-04.pdf]. Greece figures prominently as a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 2.4% of its GNP. The export of manufactured goods, including telecommunications hardware and software, foodstuffs, and fuels accounts for a large part of the rest of Greek income. The country has a high standard of living, ranking 24th on the 2005 Human Development Index and 22nd on The Economist's 2005 world-wide quality-of-life index[http://www.economist.com/media/pdf/QUALITY_OF_LIFE.pdf]. The economy has improved steadily over the last few years, as the government tightened fiscal policy in the run-up to Greece's entry into the Eurozone on January 1, 2001. Average per capita income in 2004 was estimated at $22,000 [http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GNIPC.pdf]. Greece has an expanding services sector and telecommunications industry and has become one of the largest investors in the immediate region. Moreover, Greece now operates as a net importer of labour and foreign workers (mainly from Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, and Africa). People from these areas now account for 10% of the total population. 2001 Major challenges faced by the country include the reduction of unemployment, privatising of several state enterprises, social security reforms, overhauling the tax system, and minimising bureaucratic inefficiencies. Forecasts predicted economic growth of 4 - 4.5 % in 2004. Reducing the government deficit also remains a major issue, as it is currently running at nearly twice the Eurozone target of 3% of GDP. The new conservative government revealed to Eurostat that the previous figures supplied, which were the basis of Greek entry into the Eurozone, were incorrect. Under a negotiated agreement, the EU gave Greece two years (budgets of 2005 and 2006) to bring the economy in line with the criteria of the European stability pact. The Bank of Greece, now a subsidiary of the European Central Bank, functions as the nation's central bank. This bank is not the same as the "National Bank of Greece", a commercial bank.

Tourism

In the year of 2004, Greece ranked 12th interms of International tourist Arrivals world wide with a figure of 14.180 Million visitors, some of which came for the 2004 Olympic Games. Since the promotion of Greece from the Olympic Games, the Government expects significant growth in the years to come. In 2003, tourists spent an estimated 11 billion Euros contributing 8% to Greeces GDP. Tourism in Greece has multiplied 50 times in the past 40 years and is expected to only get bigger in the next 10 years. The main problem for Greece and its tourism industry is that many people are now going to places such as Turkey or Egypt were they can get a similar summer holiday for alot cheaper. Unfortunatly, the Government dosen't spend much on promoting tourism in Greece, although they have now hired Greek singer, Elena Paparizou, as there official Ambassador as well as having released a new campaign. One suggestion is to focus now on the Winter side of Greece as Greece's tourism industry is really only a 6 month tourism season. If promoted correctly, Greece could almost double its tourist statistics since most of the 14 million tourists are accounted for in only 6 months of a 12 month year.

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Greece Greece has various linguistic and cultural minorities. A non-comprehensive list of these would include Pomaks and various Roma groups. A number of religious minorities exist, including the Muslim minority in western Thrace, which makes up about a third of that region's population. Around one million immigrants live full or part time in Greece today, of which 65% have come from Albania following the fall of communism in Albania. This was a very rapid phenomena and the Greek legal and social culture has had some difficulties adapting. Several prominent Greek sportsmen immigrated to Greece as ethnic Greeks from Albania and Georgia in the 1990s, including legendary weightlifters Pyrros Dimas and Kakhi Kakhiashvili. Smaller numbers of immigrants came from Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania. The exact number remains unknown, since the majority live illegally in Greece.

Religion

Prior to Ottoman rule, Greece was part of the Byzantine Empire. The civil and religious capital of the Empire was moved to Constantinople (modern day Istanbul) by Constantine I. Since Constantine’s time the Orthodox Christian faith has flourished and spread throughout Eastern Europe. Even under Turkish rule and repeated attempts at being proselytised firstly by the Jesuits and then by the Protestants, Orthodox Christianity survived and flourished. The role of the Orthodox Church in maintaining Greek ethnic and cultural identity during the 400 years of Ottoman rule, has strengthened the bond between religion and government. Most Greeks, even many non-practicing Christians, revere and respect the Orthodox Christian faith, attend Church and Major Feast days, and are emotionally attached to Orthodox Christianity as their 'national' religion. The Greek Constitution reflects this relationship by guaranteeing absolute freedom of religion while still defining the "prevailing religion" of Greece as the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. In practice, the Orthodox Church and the secular state are intimately involved with one another. Joint approval is needed for the building of churches and the Church has even blocked the building of places of worship for other religions in Athens. Priests receive state salaries. The President of the Republic takes an oath on the Bible and Orthodox Christianity is given privileged place in religious studies in primary education. The Church has also been allowed to keep its large portfolio of financial assets exempt from taxation and fiscal auditing. Starting in January 2005, a series of highly publicised corruption scandals involving high rank church officials have led to many calls by secular Greeks for the complete separation of Church and State and greater control of Church assets. The majority of Greeks (95-98%) have at least nominal membership in the Eastern Orthodox Church, although religious observance has declined in recent years. Greek Muslims make up about 1.3% of the population, and live primarily in Thrace. Greece also has some Roman Catholics, mainly in the city of Patras and the Cyclades islands of Syros, Paros,Tinos and Naxos; some Protestants and some Jews, mainly in Thessaloniki (which was once a major Jewish city until the Holocaust). Some groups in Greece have started an attempt to reconstruct Hellenic polytheism, the ancient Greek pagan religion. See also: Greek Orthodox Church. One small part of Greece, Mount Athos, is recognised by the Greek constitution as an autonomous monastic republic, although foreign relations, however, remain the prerogative of the Greek state. Spiritually, Mount Athos is under the Patriarchate of Constantinople and is therefore in communion with all the monasteries on Mount Athos and with the Orthodox Church based in various countries. One monastery has recently broken away and has formed a completely independent schism on the Holy Mountain -- Esphygmenou Monastery. Esphygmenou is composed of 117 Zealot monks who stubbornly oppose the head of the Church and do not commemorate him any more. They believe that they are the last remaining true Christians in the world and that Orthodoxy has been corrupted by having dialogue with other faiths. They also object to the lifting of the anathemas against the Roman Catholic Church in the 1960's by Patriarch Athenagoras. Jews have been present in Greece for the last 2000 years. The earliest reference to a Greek Jew is in an inscription, dated c. 300-250 BCE found in Oropos, a small coastal town between Athens and Boeotia, and refers to him as "Moschos, son of Moschion the Jew" who was in all likelihood, a slave. The first Greek Jewish population became known as the Romaniotes and their language became known as Yevanic (from the Hebrew word for Greece: יון/Yavan). From the 16th century onwards, Salonica, a city in northern Greece, had one of the largest (mostly Sephardic by then) Jewish communities in the world and a solid rabbinical tradition. On the island of Crete, the Jews played an important part in the transport trade. During World War II, when Greece was occupied by Nazi Germany, 86% of the Greek Jews were murdered by the invading Axis and only a minority survived and most of them have emigrated to Israel. Greece's Jewish community today is estimated at 4,500.

Culture

Main article: Culture of Greece Greece has produced a vast number of contributors to philosophy, astronomy, science, and the arts. For a list of famous Greek men and women, see List of Greeks. See also:
- Classics
- Education in Greece
- List of Greek dances
- List of museums in Greece
- Greek National Holidays
- List of research institutes in Greece
- Tourism in Greece
- List of universities in Greece

Miscellaneous topics

- History of Greece
- Ancient Greece
- Greek mythology
- Hellenistic civilization
- Byzantine Empire
- Byzantium
- Greek Language
- Communications in Greece
- List of Greek language television channels
- List of radio stations in Greece
- Greek newspapers
- Transportation in Greece
- List of Greek roads
- Rio-Antirio bridge
- Foreign relations of Greece
- Military of Greece
- Postage stamps and postal history of Greece
- Conscription in Greece
- Popular Greek Entertainment
- Plateia Syntagmatos and Vouli ton Ellinon
- Turkish Greek Civic Dialogue Project
- Greeks
- List of Greeks
- Greek American
- Category:Greek-Americans
- Greek Canadians
- Greek Australian

Sport in Greece

- Summer Olympics of 1896, 1906 & 2004
- Greece national football team (Euro 2004 Cup Winners)
- Greece national basketball team (Eurobasket 1987 & 2005 Cup Winners) The Greek government built a world class sport infrastructure specifically for the 2004 Summer Olympics which is generally regarded as a [http://www.athens2004.com/en/Legacy legacy]to the country. Greece was one of the smallest countries to ever host a modern summer Olympic games. The organisation and conduct of the games were considered highly successful. Unlike other western European countries, basketball has become a popular sport in Greece. This is largely the result of the victory achieved by the Greek national basketball team against the Soviet Union in the European championship final of 1987 held in Athens. Eighteen years later, Greece won its second Europen basketball championship in the 2005 Eurobasket, held in Belgrade.

External links

- [http://www.balkanforums.com Greece and the Balkans] Discussion Forum
- [http://www.go4less.gr/main.php?lang=EN Internet Travel Service to Greece and Smartest Accommodation Search Engine]
- [http://www.hri.org HR-Net (Hellenic Resources Network)/ comprehensive Greek news site]
- [http://www.statistics.gr/ Official Greek Statistics Site]
- [http://www.ask4greece.org Ask for Greece/ A volunteer community for Q&As about Greece]
- [http://www.gnto.gr/?langID=2/ Official Tourist Site]
- [http://www.greece-museums.com Greece Museums/ Museum directory of Greece]
- [http://www.athensvirtualtour.com/ Take a short virtual tour of Athens]
- [http://webcam.deili.info/en,1,8 Greece Webcam]
- [http://www.ert.gr/radio/liveradioTritovraxea.asp Radio Greece live]
- [http://greece.ianandwendy.com Photos of Greece from a backpacker's trip]
- [http://www.superbgreece.com Greece travel information]
- [http://www.phigita.net/ Greek Blogs and News]
- [http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/Greece/ Open Directory Project: Greece]
- [http://www.olympion.de/greek-embassies-worldwide.html A list of Greek Embassies Worldwide]
- [http://ozhanozturk.com/content/view/374/1/ History of Ottoman Greece]

Other official sites

- [http://www.presidency.gr/en/index.htm President of the Hellenic Republic]
- [http://www.greece.gr/index.htm Greece Now Government sponsored e-zine on Greek life]
- [http://www.primeminister.gr/gr/lang/en/primeminister.asp Prime Minister of Greece]
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Cyprus

:See also Cypress (a common misspelling) for other meanings. The Republic of Cyprus (Greek: Κύπρος, Kýpros; Turkish: Kıbrıs; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is an island nation in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, 113 kilometres (70 miles) south of Turkey and around 120 km west of the Syrian coast.

Terminology

The name Cyprus has a somewhat uncertain etymology. One suggestion is that it comes from the Greek word "κυπάρισσος (kypa'rissos)" meaning "cypress tree" or even from the Greek name of the plant Lawsonia alba (henna), "κύπρος (kypros)". Another school suggests that it stems from the eterocyprian word for copper. Dossin, for example, suggests that it has roots to the Sumerian word for copper, "zubar" or even the word "kubar" (bronze), due to the large deposits of copper ore found on the island. Through overseas trade, the island has already given its name to the Classical Latin word for the metal, which appears in the phrase aes Cyprium , "metal of Cyprus", later shortened to cuprum. From there the word passed into European languages as "copper" in the English language, "cuivre" in French, "Kupfer" in German and "cobre" in Portuguese and in Spanish. Another probable suggestion is that it was named after the Greek goddess Aphrodite which was also called "Κυπρίς (kipris)". Note that Cyprus was the mythical birthplace of Aphrodite. Homer in his epics Iliad and Odyssey refers to the island of "Kύπρον (kypron)": “Μούσα μοι έννεπε έργα πολυχρύσου Αφροδίτης Κύπριδος” – “Muse sing to me the works of golden haired Aphrodite Cypridos”. It is also characteristic that in ancient times the name "Κύπρος (Cyprus)" in Greek was the first or second synthetic of names, such as: Αριστόκυπρος, Φιλόκυπρος, Κυπράνορας, Κυπροθέμης.

History

:Main article: History of Cyprus

Prehistoric and Ancient Cyprus

:Main article: Cyprus (Prehistory), Ancient history of Cyprus There are but scanty traces of the Stone Age, but the Bronze Age is characterized by a well-developed and clearly marked civilization. The people quickly learned to work the rich copper mines of the island. The Mycenæan civilization seems to have reached Cyprus at around 1600 B.C. and several Greek and Phœnician settlements that belong to the Iron Age can be found on the island. Cyprus was invaded by Thothmes III of Egypt about 1500 B.C., and was forced to pay tribute. Around 1200 B.C. begins the massive arrival of the Mycenæan Greeks as permanent settlers to Cyprus, a process which lasted for more than a century. This migration is remembered in many sagas concerning how some of the Greek heroes that participated in the Trojan war came to settle in Cyprus. The newcomers brought with them their language, their advanced technology and introduced a new outlook for visual arts. Thus from 1220 B.C. Cyprus has remained predominantly Greek in culture, language and population despite various influences resulting from successive conquests. In times Cyprus supplied the rest of the Greeks with timber for their fleets. In the 16th century B.C., Amasis of Egypt conquered Cyprus, which soon fell under the rule of the Persians when Cambyses conquered Egypt. In the Persian