Greece

Greece is as much sea as land. The mainland runs south from the Pindus mountains to the Peloponnese, cut off by the Corinth Canal since 1893, and thousands of islands surround it, from Corfu in the Ionian Sea to the Cyclades and Rhodes in the Aegean, with Crete closing the south. Mount Olympus is the highest summit, and the monasteries of Meteora perch on rock pillars above the Thessalian plain. Santorini is the broken rim of a Bronze Age volcano.

Palaces rose at Knossos on Crete and at Mycenae in the Bronze Age. Athens built its democracy and the Parthenon in the fifth century BC, after Greek ships defeated Persia at Salamis in 480 BC, and Socrates, Plato and Aristotle taught there. Rome annexed Greece in 146 BC; the Greek-speaking eastern empire ruled from Constantinople until 1453. The War of Independence began in 1821. Occupation in 1941–44 was followed by civil war, and a military junta ruled from 1967 to 1974.

Easter is the great feast of the Orthodox year, with candles lit at midnight, red eggs cracked and lambs turning on spits. On Mount Athos, a self-governing monastic community, women have been barred for centuries. Rebetiko, the blues of the Piraeus waterfront, is played on the bouzouki, and the poets George Seferis and Odysseas Elytis won Nobel Prizes. Olive oil, feta and Chios mastic come from the land, Greek families own a vast merchant fleet, and summer fills the islands with visitors.