n.
officially Hellenic Republic
Country, Balkan Peninsula , southern Europe.
Area: 50,949 sq mi (131,957 sq km). Population (2002 est.): 10,994,000. Capital: Athens . The people are mainly ethnic Greek. Language: Greek (official). Religion: Greek Orthodoxy (official). Currency: euro. The land, with its 2,000-odd islands and 2,500-mi (4,000-km) coastline, is intimately linked with the sea. Less than one-fourth of this mountainous country consists of lowland, much of this as coastal plains along the Aegean or mountain valleys and small plains near river mouths. The country's interior is dominated by the Pindus Mountains, which extend from Albania on Greece's northwestern border into the Peloponnese . Mount Olympus is the country's highest peak. Among its islands are the Aegean and Ionian groups and Crete . Greece has a Mediterranean climate. It has an advanced developing economy, mainly private-enterprise, based on agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Greece is a multiparty republic with one legislative house; the chief of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. The earliest urban society in Greece was the palace-centred Minoan civilization, which reached its height on Crete 0441; 2000 BC. It was succeeded by the mainland Mycenaean civilization, which arose 0441; 1600 BC following a wave of Indo-European invasions. About 1200 BC a second wave of invasions destroyed the Bronze Age cultures, and a Dark Age followed, known mostly through the epics of Homer . At the end of this time, Classical Greece began to emerge ( 0441; 750 BC) as a collection of independent city-states, including Sparta in the Peloponnese and Athens in Attica. The civilization reached its zenith after repelling the Persians at the beginning of the 5th century BC (see Persian Wars ) and began to decline after the civil strife of the Peloponnesian War at the century's end. In 338 BC the Greek city-states were taken over by Philip II of Macedon, and Greek culture was spread by Philip's son Alexander the Great throughout his empire. The Romans, themselves heavily influenced by Greek culture, conquered the Greek states in the 2nd century BC. After the fall of Rome, Greece remained part of the Byzantine Empire until the mid-15th century, when it became part of the expanding Ottoman Empire ; it gained its independence in 1832. It was occupied by Nazi Germany during World War II. Civil war followed and lasted until 1949, when communist forces were defeated. In 1952 Greece joined NATO . A military junta ruled the country from 1967 to 1974, at which time democracy was restored and a referendum declared an end to the Greek monarchy. In 1981 Greece joined the European Community (see European Union ), the first eastern European country to do so. Upheavals in the Balkans in the 1990s strained Greece's relations with some neighbouring states, including the former Yugoslav entity that became the Republic of Macedonia. Greece revised its constitution in 2001. The 2004 Olympic Games were scheduled to return to Athens.