Discover Greece and the beautiful Greek islands

This complete site of the Greek Islands provides information and maps but also many hotels located in the: Cyclades, Ionians, Dodecanese, Crete, Sporades, Eastern Aegean and the Saronic. This site gives information about the islands of Greece and a large range of greek hotels… Just follow the links...

Greece Photo Beach

The Islands of Greece are considered by many as one of the top European holidays destinations. The reasons are obvious: 1400 scattered in the crystal blue waters of the Greek Aegean and Ionians Seas.
There are some 169 inhabited Greek Islands separated in different groups. Every island is unique, with its particular landscapes and beauty. The have everything to offer: beautiful landscapes, ruins of one of Europe’s greatest civilizations, charming villages, endless golden sandy beaches, active night life, water sports…

Beaches of Greece

My family and I visit Greece every year and inevitably we spend a great deal of time at the beaches of Greece during the summer. We like to travel around to discover new Greek beaches, and we tend to rate each beach after our visit.

This is not an official guide; Instead, these are our own observations of the beach qualities as we experienced them during our visit. Our beach reports here is based on on-site visits. Certain beaches we have visited only once, while many we have seen several times.Beaches are arranged here by province or island .

Government of Greece

Country name:
conventional long form: Hellenic Republic
conventional short form: Greece
local short form: Ellas or Ellada
former: Kingdom of Greece
local long form: Elliniki Dhimokratia
Government type:
parliamentary republic; monarchy rejected by referendum 8 December 1974
Capital:
Athens
Administrative divisions:
51 prefectures (nomoi, singular - nomos) and 1 autonomous region*; Agion Oros* (Mt. Athos), Achaia, Aitolia kai Akarmania, Argolis, Arkadia, Arta, Attiki, Chalkidiki, Chanion, Chios, Dodekanisos, Drama, Evros, Evrytania, Evvoia, Florina, Fokidos, Fthiotis, Grevena, Ileia, Imathia, Ioannina, Irakleion, Karditsa, Kastoria, Kavala, Kefallinia, Kerkyra, Kilkis, Korinthia, Kozani, Kyklades, Lakonia, Larisa, Lasithi, Lefkas, Lesvos, Magnisia, Messinia, Pella, Pieria, Preveza, Rethynnis, Rodopi, Samos, Serrai, Thesprotia, Thessaloniki, Trikala, Voiotia, Xanthi, Zakynthos
Independence:
1829 (from the Ottoman Empire)
National holiday:
Independence Day, 25 March (1821)
Constitution:
11 June 1975; amended March 1986 and April 2001
Legal system:
based on codified Roman law; judiciary divided into civil, criminal, and administrative courts
Suffrage:
18 years of age; universal and compulsory
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Konstandinos (Kostis) STEPHANOPOULOS (since 10 March 1995)
elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term; election last held 8 February 2000 (next to be held by NA February 2005); president appoints leader of the party securing plurality of vote in election
head of government: Prime Minister Konstandinos KARAMANLIS (since NA March 2004)
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister
election results: Konstandinos STEPHANOPOULOS reelected president; percent of Parliament vote - 90%
Legislative branch:
unicameral Parliament or Vouli ton Ellinon (300 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote to serve four-year terms)
elections: elections last held 7 March 2004 (next to be held by March 2008)
election results: percent of vote by party - ND 45.4%, PASOK 40.6%, KKE 5.9%, Synaspismos 3.3%; seats by party - ND 165, PASOK 117, KKE 12, Synaspismos 6
Judicial branch:
Supreme Judicial Court; Special Supreme Tribunal; all judges appointed for life by the president after consultation with a judicial council
Political parties and leaders:
Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) [Nikolaos KONSTANTOPOULOS]; Communist Party of Greece or KKE [Aleka PAPARIGA]; New Democracy or ND (conservative) [Konstandinos KARAMANLIS]; Panhellenic Socialist Movement or PASOK [Yiorgos PAPANDREOU]
Political pressure groups and leaders:
NA
International organization participation:
Australia Group, BIS, BSEC, CE, CERN, EAPC, EBRD, EIB, EMU, EU, FAO, G- 6, IAEA, IBRD, ICAO, ICC, ICCt, ICFTU, ICRM, IDA, IEA, IFAD, IFC, IFRCS, IHO, ILO, IMF, IMO, Interpol, IOC, IOM, ISO, ITU, MINURSO, NAM (guest), NATO, NEA, NSG, OAS (observer), OECD, OPCW, OSCE, PCA, UN, UNCTAD, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNIDO, UNMEE, UNMIK, UNOMIG, UPU, WCO, WEU, WFTU, WHO, WIPO, WMO, WToO, WTrO, ZC
Diplomatic representation in the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Yeoryios SAVVAIDIS
consulate(s): Atlanta, Houston, and New Orleans
consulate(s) general: Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco
FAX: [1] (202) 939-1324
telephone: [1] (202) 939-1300
chancery: 2221 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008
Diplomatic representation from the US:
chief of mission: Ambassador Thomas J. MILLER
embassy: 91 Vasilissis Sophias Avenue, 101 60 Athens
mailing address: PSC 108, APO AE 09842-0108
telephone: [30] (210) 721-2951
FAX: [30] (210) 645-6282
consulate(s) general: Thessaloniki
Flag description:
nine equal horizontal stripes of blue alternating with white; there is a blue square in the upper hoist-side corner bearing a white cross; the cross symbolizes Greek Orthodoxy, the established religion of the country

Economy Of Greece

Economy - overview:
Greece has a mixed capitalist economy with the public sector accounting for half of GDP and with per capita GDP 70% of the leading euro-zone economies. Tourism provides 15% of GDP. Immigrants make up nearly one-fifth of the work force, mainly in menial jobs. Greece is a major beneficiary of EU aid, equal to about 3.3% of GDP. The Greek economy grew by 4.0% in 2003 and is expected to grow by 4.2% in 2004, the year that Athens will host the 2004 Olympic Games. Remaining challenges include the reduction of the public debt, inflation, and unemployment; and further restructuring of the economy, including privatizing several state enterprises, undertaking pension and other reforms, and minimizing bureaucratic inefficiencies.
GDP:
purchasing power parity - $212.2 billion (2003 est.)
GDP - real growth rate:
4% (2003 est.)
GDP - per capita:
purchasing power parity - $19,900 (2003 est.)
GDP - composition by sector:
agriculture: 6.7%
industry: 22%
services: 71.2% (2003 est.)
Investment (gross fixed):
25.5% of GDP (2003)
Population below poverty line:
NA
Household income or consumption by percentage share:
lowest 10%: 3%
highest 10%: 25.3% (1993 est.)
Distribution of family income - Gini index:
32.7 (1993)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
3.6% (2003 est.)
Labor force:
4.39 million (2003 est.)
Labor force - by occupation:
industry 20%, agriculture 20%, services 59% (2000 est.)
Unemployment rate:
9.4% (2003 est.)
Budget:
revenues: $76.84 billion
expenditures: $79.48 billion, including capital expenditures of NA (2003 est.)
Public debt:
100.9% of GDP (2003)
Agriculture - products:
wheat, corn, barley, sugar beets, olives, tomatoes, wine, tobacco, potatoes; beef, dairy products
Industries:
tourism; food and tobacco processing, textiles; chemicals, metal products; mining, petroleum
Industrial production growth rate:
0.7% (2003 est.)
Electricity - production:
49.79 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - production by source:
fossil fuel: 94.5%
hydro: 3.8%
other: 1.7% (2001)
nuclear: 0%
Electricity - consumption:
48.8 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - exports:
1.062 billion kWh (2001)
Electricity - imports:
3.562 billion kWh (2001)
Oil - production:
5,992 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - consumption:
405,700 bbl/day (2001 est.)
Oil - exports:
84,720 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - imports:
468,300 bbl/day (2001)
Oil - proved reserves:
4.5 million bbl (1 January 2002)
Natural gas - production:
35 million cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - consumption:
2.021 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - exports:
0 cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - imports:
2.018 billion cu m (2001 est.)
Natural gas - proved reserves:
254.9 million cu m (1 January 2002)
Current account balance:
$-11.33 billion (2003)
Exports:
$5.899 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Exports - commodities:
food and beverages, manufactured goods, petroleum products, chemicals, textiles
Exports - partners:
Germany 12.6%, Italy 10.5%, UK 7%, US 6.5%, Bulgaria 6.2%, Cyprus 4.8%, France 4.2%, Turkey 4% (2003 est.)
Imports:
$33.27 billion f.o.b. (2003 est.)
Imports - commodities:
machinery, transport equipment, fuels, chemicals
Imports - partners:
Germany 12.5%, Italy 12.2%, France 6.6%, Russia 6.1%, South Korea 5.4%, US 5.2%, Netherlands 5.2%, Japan 4.3%, UK 4.2% (2003 est.)
Reserves of foreign exchange & gold:
$5.802 billion (2003)
Debt - external:
$65.51 billion (2003 est.)
Economic aid - recipient:
$5.4 billion from EU (1995)
Currency:
euro (EUR)
note: on 1 January 1999, the European Monetary Union introduced the euro as a common currency to be used by financial institutions of member countries; on 1 January 2002, the euro became the sole currency for everyday transactions within the member countries
Currency code:
EUR
Exchange rates:
euros per US dollar - 0.886 (2003), 1.0626 (2002), 1.1175 (2001), 365.399 (2000), 305.647 (1999)
Fiscal year:
calendar year

Geography Of Greece

Location: Southern Europe, bordering the Aegean Sea, Ionian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, between Albania and Turkey
Geographic coordinates: 39 00 N, 22 00 E
Map references: Europe
Area:
total: 131,940 sq km
water: 1,140 sq km
land: 130,800 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than Alabama
Land boundaries: total: 1,228 km
border countries: Albania 282 km, Bulgaria 494 km, Turkey 206 km, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 246 km
Coastline:
13,676 km
Maritime claims:
territorial sea: 12 nm
continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Climate:
temperate; mild, wet winters; hot, dry summers
Terrain:
mostly mountains with ranges extending into the sea as peninsulas or chains of islands
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Mediterranean Sea 0 m
highest point: Mount Olympus 2,917 m
Natural resources:
lignite, petroleum, iron ore, bauxite, lead, zinc, nickel, magnesite, marble, salt, hydropower potential
Land use:
arable land: 21.1%
permanent crops: 8.78%
other: 70.12% (2001)
Irrigated land:
14,220 sq km (1998 est.)
Natural hazards:
severe earthquakes
Environment - current issues:
air pollution; water pollution
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Sulfur 94, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds
Geography - note:
strategic location dominating the Aegean Sea and southern approach to Turkish Straits; a peninsular country, possessing an archipelago of about 2,000 islands

Review - Ancient Greek Love Magic

By :Christopher A. Faraone
Ancient Greek Love Magic
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999.
ISBN 0674033205 :223 pages.

ANCIENT Athens was so brilliant, their art work, political theory, and philosophy still set the standards, but along with their glory was their mistreatment of large groups of people who were relegated not just to second class, but to no class of citizen. The largest of these groups was women, whom, we are taught, the men in power feared, if not despised. The impression of Athenian misogyny is based on literature and mythology, from Hesiod to Aristotle. But what about the women? Were they misogynists, too? Were they misandrists? Neither? In Ancient Greek Love Magic, Christopher A. Faraone looks at evidence from erotic charms, spells and potions to form a mixed picture of what relations between the sexes were really like.

In Ancient Greece, the men appear to have had contempt for and fear of their women because of the women's supposedly unquenchable lust. Semonides captures this in his caricatures of women as descendants of such animals as dogs, donkeys, pigs, and weasels. But if women were truly so rapacious and men so disinterested, what would LysistrataÂ’s sex strike have accomplished? And how did Faraone compile more than 70 spells by men to make women lustful?

Faraone says the Ancient Greek world had misogynists and misandrists side-by-side. In the misandrist model, itÂ’s the men who are out of control, violent, and cruel, while the women are controlled, sedate, and reluctant to have intercourse. Most of the spells Faraone examines relate more to the misandrist than the misogynist outlook.

There are two basis categories of spells, agoge and philia. Agoge spells are used by those in socially superior positions who wish to attract their social inferiors and lead them away from their families. The type of love involved is eros, rather than agape or philia (love for friends and family). Eros is described as “ballistic,” in a literal and figurative sense: literally, the god Eros shoots lust arrows or men throw charmed love apples at their victims; figuratively, in that women are supposed to be driven mad with lust. Philia spells, usually used by social inferiors are intended to keep mates interested, to rekindle affection, and to make the socially superior more loving. Generally, the spells fall along gender lines, with most of the philia spells performed by women on men. Of 80 surviving agoge spells, only seven were used by women to attract men.

The traditional misogynist model looks upon women as locked inside the womenÂ’s quarter, yet the spells aimed at getting women out of the house and into the bed of the would-be lover, have no effect on the womenÂ’s guardians. If sufficiently motivated, the lusted-after woman would simply walk out on her own. Faraone suggests women had free egress from their homes. That they stayed with their parents means they wished to. The agoge spells were designed to break down this filial attachment.

Agoge spells sometimes used effigies of the victim. The man would burn these pin-studded dolls while he asked the appropriate deity (mostly, Pan, Eros, Hekate, and Aphrodite) to make the victim burn with enough passion to reject her parents and join him. Sometimes a determined would-be lover procured a iunx bird. This small, supposedly sexually rapacious bird would be affixed to an instrument of torture (a wheel) where, with the right incantations, it would transfer it's sexuality to the human victim. One instance of a iunx spell comes from Theocritus Idyll II where itÂ’s a woman who calls on the iunx to bring her man to her home.

Philia spells, whose goal wasnÂ’t to wrench someone away from home and loved ones, but to temper or restore kindly feelings, tended to be more benign, using potions and ointments rather than effigies. Still, a potion made too strong would have more deleterious effects than a vicarious burning spell. Perhaps the most well known philia spell to backfire was the ointment Deianeira spread on HeraclesÂ’ garment when she was trying to win back the affection she saw drifting away from her and to a new woman (Iole).

You will be disappointed in Ancient Greek Love Magic if youÂ’'re expecting a few tried and true love spells with which to entice an unsuspecting victim. It is not a manual of amatory devices. Instead, it is a clear analysis of the literary uses of charms, spells, and drugs associated with enticing and keeping a mate, as well as a re-examination of ancient attitudes towards women.

The intended audience for this 223 page volume is the educated layperson without knowledge of Greek. For this reason, Faraone includes a glossary of Greek terms at the end of the book, where you'll also find a hefty bibliography and list of abbreviations. Footnotes, on page bottoms, sometimes distractingly continue on the following page. Minor shortcomings in Ancient Greek Love Magic are the shortage of quickly understood tabular, visual aids (because those few included seem so helpful), and the shortage of actual spells. A final shortcoming, in an otherwise eye-opening book, is a bewildering symbolic comparison, near the end, between stages in a woman's life and the misogynist and misandrist models.

Top-Five Best Beaches of Greece

# Sarakiniko (in Elafonisos Island, Peloponnese)
What a great experience we had at Sarakiniko beach. Simos beach is right around the corner and just as great of a beach! For such a tiny island, Elafonisos at the Southern end of Peloponnese offers three of the best beaches of Greece (Panagia beach is the third one), and just about the best looking water in the world.
# Egremnoi (Lefkada)
# One of the best kept secrets of Greece. Beautiful scenery, crystal clear turquoise water, and soft white coarse sand make this beach one of the best to visit. Its out-of-the-way location on the West coast of Lefkada, and the thousand make-shift concrete steps down (and then up), separate the huge crowds from this beach. Excellent by all measures.
# Myrtos (Kefalonia)
Myrtos was voted as the best beach of Greece a few years ago, and for good reason. Fantastic water and bright-white pebbles, nested among steep cliffs on the west coast of Kefalonia.
# Erimoupolis (Crete)
At the very northern tip of Eastern Crete, Erimoupolis stole our heart during our visit to this part of Greece. Nested between rugged rocks and an ancient cemetery, Erimoupolis is named after the "abandoned town" of Itanos, the ruins of which you have to pass on your way to the beach. Although the beach gets too crowded during the weekends, it is a joy to visit during weekdays.
# Myrtidiotissa (Corfu)
The road to Myrtidiotissa is a real hazard for any car, so travelers have to park high up the hill near the monastery of Myrtidiotissa, and then walk down about a kilometer of dirt road. The water is crystal-clear, and the strip of soft brown sand is sheltered by tall cliffs on all sides. This small beach tends to feel overcrowded during full season, but a real pleasure early in the summer.