Greece Travel Guide

The Greek peninsula extends in the southeast point(headland) of Europe, covering a 131 944 km surface ² (600 km from north to south and 750 km from west to east).
Lined on the West by the Ionian Sea and by the East by the Aegean Sea, Greece is divided into two regions: the continental part(party) which includes 81 % of the territory (Attica, Peloponnese, Greece power plant, Thessaly, Épire, Macedonia, Thrace), and the island part(party) consisted of 437 islands, among which 134 lived; both main clauses(head teachers) are Crete in the South and Eubée on the Aegean Sea.
His(Her) immediate neighbours are Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Greece is a very mountainous country (80 % of the territory) with twenty eight exceeding summits 2 000 m. The backbone of the country is established(constituted) by the mountains of Pinde which cross Greece since the Albanian border to the gulf of Corinth. East of Pinde, the other massifs fall to the Aegean Sea and peak in the mount Olympus (2 917 m), the highest summit of the country.
In the northeast, along the Bulgarian border, Rhodope comes down(falls) up to the coastal plain. The main regions of plains are the Thessaly, the plain of Axios in central Macedonia and the coast of Thrace. The coastal, very restless landscape, extends over 13 680 km. The vegetation is varied, of Mediterranean type(chap) in the center and the South of the country and calling back(reminding) Central Europe in the North. There is more than six thousand botanical species among which two hundred and fifty grow in Crete.
The forest is extremely diversified. Main gasolines(essences) are conifer (pines, fir trees) and broad-leaved trees (oaks). We also find olive trees, mulberry trees, fruit trees and palm trees. The culture of the vineyard(vine) is important.

Population
The population of the country is Greek in 98 %. The main national minorities are the Turks and the Pomaques (in Thrace in particular), and the Armenians. Greece was for a long time a country with strong emigration and an important Greek Diaspora established(constituted) all over the world, in particular in Australia, in North America and in Germany. The country is since 1992 confronted upon the arrival of immigrants of South-East Asia, Europe of is(Eastern), of Africa and the Balkans, the Albanians establishing(constituting) the main community, with 600 000 persons.

Climate Altogether, Greece enjoys a Mediterranean climate, which varies however according to the height and to the latitude, with soft and rainy winters and very warm and dry summers. Fresh(cool) and sometimes rough in North, rainy on the West, the winter is relatively dry and brightened up in the Aegean Islands. Of in the middle of December at the end of March, the average temperature remains between 8°C and 12°C. The snow is rare, the exceptional frost(gel).
The sunny, dry and warm summer extends of her(it) in the middle of May in mid-September. The diurnal temperature usually achieves 30°C with points until 36°C and 38°C, and even sometimes more. On the other hand, nights are generally fresh(cool).
The spring and the autumn, when the good weather alternates with showers, with changes in temperature, is short seasons.

Main cities
A) Major Athens La of Greece includes approximately 4 million inhabitants with its suburbs and the port(bearing) of the Piraeus, that is more than a third(third party) of the population. She(it) gathers(collects) more half of the industrial activities (textiles(textile industries), chemistry, metal industry, food-processing industry) and the main part of the foreign trade of the country. Its geographical position and its history(story) make one of the big tourist centres to the world, endowed with antique famous monuments and with a pleiad of museums. The too fast development of this city pulled(entailed) an anarchy urbanization. The traffic(circulation) is very difficult for it and the rate of pollution is raised(brought up), the summer particularly.
B) Thessalonica La capital of Greece of the northeast a port(bearing) at the bottom of the gulf Thermaïque in the Aegean Sea. The city, which includes 1,1 millions inhabitants, contains beautiful Byzantine vestiges and museums. The main local industries are shipyards, textile(textile industry), flour-mill. The climate is rougher than in Athens. The winter is rainy and rather cold.
C) North Patras Au of the Peloponnese, on the strait of Corinth, Patras gathers(collects) approximately 155 000 inhabitants. The food industry, the shipbuilding, the textile(textile industry) establish(constitute) the main part of its activities. Destroyed(annulled) by the Turks in 1821, Patras was reconstructed according to the plan of a modern city with rectilinear avenues.
D) Major Heraklion La of Crete, situated on the north coast(rib) of the island, understands 130 000 inhabitants. It is an important shopping mall.