Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country of southeastern Europe as part of the European Union (EU).

Located on the south side of the Balkan Peninsula, bordered by Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia and Albania to the north, east and west with Turkey, and south by the Ionian and Mediterranean Sea.

Greece is now a democratic republic. With 41.83% of votes (152 of 300 seats), the conservative party led by Kostas Karamanlis won a victory in the parliamentary elections on September 16, 2007.

* Greece is a parliamentary republic as chairman at the head of the executive for a term of 5 years. * The legislature is unicameral and is represented with 300 members of parliament, representing the Greek people. * The judiciary is independent and is represented by three superior courts.

Geographically and climatically the Greek territory is diverse. With 9000 islands, islets and rocky outcrops, 15,021 km of coastline (more than 16,000 km of coastline including rocky outcroppings), being the second in Europe after Norway and tenth world behind United States in coastal length. The Aegean Sea has been of great importance in the history and development of culture and Hellenistic civilization. Greece is mostly mountainous and has several channels including the Dinaric Alps to the west (which by changing direction of islands southeast of the Peloponnese in the south); Rodopi mountains, chains of Olympus and others. Greece is the European country with largest number of peaks

The climate of Greece is divided into three classes:

* The Mediterranean climate that is humid and mild winters and hot and dry summers. The temperatures rarely reach extremes, although snowfalls occur occasionally in Athens, Cyclades and Crete in the winter. * The alpine climate is found primarily in the West: Thessaly, central Greece, Epirus, Macedonia and parts of western Peloponnese as Achaea, Arkadia and parts of Lakonia where the Alpine range influences.
* The climate is temperate in East Macedonia, Central Macedonia and Thrace at places like strands and Xanthi. This climate has cold winters and humid.

50% of Greece is covered by forests with varied vegetation, ranging from Alpine coniferous to Mediterranean vegetation According to WWF, the territory of Greece was divided between six different eco-regions: * Temperate hardwood forest Balkan mixed forests in the lowlands of the north. * Mediterranean Forest Illyrian deciduous forests in the far northwest. or mixed forests of the mountains in the mountains Pindo . Mediterranean forests of Crete or in Crete. sclerophyllous and mixed forests in the Aegean and western Turkey in the rest of the country. Seals, turtles and other exotic marine life living in the seas around Greece, while Greek forests provide an ecosystem for the last brown bears and lynx and gray wolves, deer, bezoar goat, fox and wild boar.

Agriculture represents a very import ant role in the economy of Greece. A quarter of the population of Greece is working in agriculture, which constitutes 15% of gross domestic product. The annual production of major crops by the end of the 1980s was, snuff, 142000, wheat, 2.6 million tomatoes, 1.9 million; oranges, 780,000; corn, 2.1 million; sugar beet, 1.9 million; grapes, 1.6 million; olives, 1.5 million; potatoes, 850,000, and cotton, 222,000. Livestock totals approximately 10.8 million head of sheep, 3.5 million goats, 800,000 head of cattle, 31 million poultry and 2.1 million pigs.

About one fifth of the workforce is employed in this sector, which produces 18% of annual gross domestic product. Its main products are the basic metals and fabricated metal products, food, drinks, snuff, textiles and clothing, chemicals, cement and wine. Athens is the industrial center of Greece. 90% of the electricity generated in Greece lignite thermal plants, coal or petroleum, and the rest mainly in hydroelectric facilities located on the river Akhels in the mountains Pindo. At the end of the 1980s power-generating capacity of Greece was about 10.2 million kW, and its annual production of 30.1 billion.

At the end of the 1980s, some 8.1 million tourists annually chose Greece as their holiday destination to visit their antiques and relax in the sun of the Mediterranean Sea. The figures show a profit in this sector of 2,200 billion dollars a year. Greece, a country with a history that is ours. A country where the traveler is welcomed as an old friend who has returned. Its flag is the blue and transparent waters. Greece and its islands, each a world with its scenery and its own personality that will make us feel like the gods of Olimpo. Greece means a paradise for the traveler who wants to live the essence of Western civilization.

In 2007, Greece has a population of 11,250,000 inhabitants (not including more than 750,000 immigrants). Life expectancy is 79 years. 99.9% of the population is literate. The average number of children per woman is 1.35, one of the lowest in the Western world. The population of the two largest conurbations of Greece, Athens and Thessaloniki, is 5 million for the first and slightly more than 1 million in the second. Although the population of Greece continues to grow, the country faces a serious demographic problem: 2002 was the first year that the number of deaths exceeded births. The current ethnic composition is as follows: * Europe: 98.9% (Greeks from all ethnic groups other Europeans 92.7% + 6.2%) * Asian: 0.7% (mostly Armenian and Georgian) * American: 0.3% (most Americans) * Australia: 0.1%

The most common language in any field official or public education in the country is in modern Greek demotic variant, although it is possible to find areas in which the variant is used katharevousa. Other languages spoken by populations in Greece are Albanian sefronteriza in the area with Albania, arvanita language (a dialect of Albanian) population in many pockets throughout Greece, the Slav-Macedonian language (a dialect of Serbian) in the province of Macedonia, Turkish in Thrace, the Bulgarian Pomak or in Thrace, the Aromanian or Vlach (a Romanian dialect) in the north of the country, in some communities meglenorrumano north of Thessaloniki, the Romany gypsy populations dispersed throughout the country and a Greek dialect, the tsakonio, regarded by some as a Greek language different from the old dialect or Dorio Arcadia.

Greek Muslims make up 1.3% of the population and are concentrated mainly in Thrace. There are some evangelical Protestants and Catholics, mainly in the Cyclades, and Jews, especially in Salonika. Some groups try to reconstruct the ancient Greek polytheistic religion.

The Greeks, in general, is a strong link with their past, emphasizing the classical period of Greek history, and from the Hellenistic and Byzantine-present After the revolution of 1821 (for details, see War of Independence of Greece), Greece went through a period of artistic and cultural renaissance. Greeks today tend the memories of the years before the revolution, those of the occupation of Greece by the Ottoman Empire, like the "dark years", in that cultural development was completely arrested. Despite evidence to the contrary (in particular with regard to literature Crete), the resurgence of Greece after the formation of the first Hellenic Republic in 1831 is remembered by a vast majority of Greeks as the "rebirth" of his nation .

Greek cuisine is cited as an example of Mediterranean diet. It has influences from Italian, Balkan and Middle Eastern cuisine. Some of the most popular dishes include Moussaka, spanakopita and Stif. In Greece people also eat small dishes called MEZE wet as Tzatziki sauces, grilled octopus, small fish, feta cheese, dolmades (rice, grains and raisins wrapped in grape leaves), various pulses, olives and cheese. You add olive oil to almost all dishes. Among the dishes this galaktoboureko sweet drinks such as ouzo, Metaxa and a variety of wines including retsina.

The art and architecture of ancient Greece had a great influence on Western art to the present. Byzantine art and Byzantine architecture also played an important role in the beginnings of Christianity, and is a significant influence on the Orthodox Christian nations of Eastern Europe and Eurasia The remains of the architecture still survive today and are well documented. The ancient Greeks developed two primary styles (or "classical orders"). The sober and solid Doric and Ionic refined and decorative. Note that the Ionic style evolved into the Corinthian style.

SUBMITTED BY: JESSICA PAOLA LONDOO JORGE ALEXANDER RAMIREZ