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:: Athens, Attiki in Greece :: |
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Athens is the largest and capital city of Greece, located in the Attica periphery, and one of the oldest cities in the world, with a recorded history of at least 3,000 years. Today, the Greek capital is Europe's 8th largest conurbation, a bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis with an urban population of 3.3 million and a metropolitan population of about 3.8 million people. The Athens metropolitan area is the centre of economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece. The city is also rapidly becoming a leading business centre in the European Union. The city proper has a land area of 39 km², while the urban agglomeration of Athens spans 412 km². Ancient Athens was a powerful city-state. A center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum,Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles and its many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, and the birthplace of democracy largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent. The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, portrayed through a number of ancient monuments and artworks; the most famous of all the Parthenon on the Acropolis, standing as an epic landmark of western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a small number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city's long history across the centuries. Landmarks of the modern era are also present, dating back to 1830 (the establishment of the independent Greek state), and taking in the Greek Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy (Library, University, and Academy). Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the Summer Olympics, with great success. Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica, often referred to as the Attica Basin (not to be confused with the Atticas Basin located in inner Mongolia), which is bound by Mount Aegaleo in the west, Mount Parnitha in the north, Mount Penteli in the northeast, Mount Hymettus in the east, and the Saronic Gulf in the southwest. The capital has expanded to cover the entire plain, making future growth difficult. The geomorphology of Athens causes the so-called temperature inversion phenomenon, and along with the failure of the Greek Government to control industrial pollution is responsible for the air pollution problems the city has recently faced. (Los Angeles and Mexico City also suffer with similar geomorphology inversion problems). The pollution of Athens was at one point so destructive, that according to the then Greek Minister of Culture, Constantine Trypanis, the carved details on the five caryatids of the Erechtheum have seriously degenerated, while the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side is all but obliterated.. A series of strict measures then taken by the authorities of the city throughout the 1990s resulted in a dramatic improvement of air quality; the appearance of smog (or nefos as the Athenians used to call it) has become an increasingly rare phenomenon. Spring and fall (autumn) are considered ideal seasons for sightseeing and all kinds of outdoor activities. Summers can be particularly hot and at times prone to smog and pollution related conditions (however, much less so than in the past). The average summer daytime maximum temperature is 90°F (32C), and heatwaves are relatively common, occurring generally during the months of July and/or August, when hot air masses sweep across Greece from the south or southwest. On such days only temperature maxima soar over 100°F (38C). Athens has been a popular destination for travellers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the infrastructure and social amenities of Athens have been radically improved, in part due to the city's successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the EU, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, the massive expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway. Home to a wide range of 5 and 4 star hotels, the city is currently the 6th most visited capital. |
           
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