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Fast Guide: Greece
Full Name: Hellenic Republic
Capital City : Athens
Area: 131,940 sq km / 50,942 sq miles
Population : 10,666,000
Time Zone : GMT/UTC +2 ()
Languages : Greek (official). Modern (demotic) Greek is a southern dialect adopted as a standardized version of the language
Religion : 98% Greek Orthodox, 1.3% Muslim, 0.7% other
Currency : Euro (€)
Electricity : 220V 50 Hz
CountryDialingCode: 30
Weather Overview
 Greece generally has mild wet winters and hot dry summers. Winter temperatures can be severe in the mountains and even Athens can get viciously cold. Maximum temperatures on the islands hover around 30°C (87°F) in summer, but the heat is often tempered by the northerly wind known as the meltemi.
Weights Measures System
 Metric
Geography
 The peninsula that constitutes mainland Greece is surrounded by more than 1400 islands, of which 169 are inhabited. The islands are divided into six groups: the Cyclades, the Ionians, the Dodecanese, the islands of the Northeastern Aegean, the Sporades and the Saronic Gulf islands. The two largest islands, Crete and Evia, do not belong to any group. Roughly four-fifths of Greece is mountainous, with most land lying over 1500m (4920ft) above sea level. Epiros and Macedonia, in northern Greece, still have extensive forests, but goat grazing, felling and forest fires have seriously denuded the rest of the country.
Places to See
Whether you come to Greece for history, leisure, or business, will depend on your temperament. Its stunning ancient sites stand alongside the legacies of foreign occupiers: towering Venetian, Frankish and Turkish castles and crumbling mosques. Then there's 1400 islands to explore...
Traveling within Greece
 Greece is an easy place to travel around thanks to a comprehensive public transport system. Buses are the mainstay of land transport, with a network that reaches out to the smallest villages. Trains are a good alternative, where available. To most visitors, though, travelling in Greece means island-hopping on the multitude of ferries that crisscross the Adriatic and the Aegean. If you're in a hurry, Greece also has an extensive domestic air network.
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