Athens-Greek:Αθήνα, is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Αtica region and is one of the world’s oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years αnd its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th centuries BC.Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. It was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, and the home of Plato‘s Academy and Aristotle‘s Lyceum.It is widely referred to as τhe cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy,largely because of its cultural and political impact on the European continent—particularly Ancient Rome.In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece. In 2021, Athens’ urban area hosted more than three and a half million people, which is around 35% of the entire population of Greece.Athens is a Beta global city according to the Globalization and World Cities Research Network,and is one of the biggest economic centers in Southeastern Europe. It also has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe,and the third largest in the world.The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens), which actually constitutes a small administrative unit of the entire city, had a population of 664,046 (in 2011) within its official limits, and a land area of 38.96 sq km(15.04 sq mi).The Athens Urban Area or Greater Athens extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 (in 2011)over an area of 412sq.km 159sq mi).According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area of Athens was the 9th most populous in the European Union (the 6th most populous capital city of the EU), with a population of 3.8 million people. Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland and the warmest major city in Europe.
The heritage of the Classical Era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments, and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments, while its historical urban core features elements of continuity through its millennia of history.Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery. Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, includes the Hellenic Parliament and the so-called “Architectural Trilogy of Athens”, consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the Academy of Athens. Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world’s largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum, and the Byzantine and Christian Museum. Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it hosted the2004 Summer Olympics, making it one of the few cities to have hosted the Olympics more than once.
In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι (Athênai, The root of the word is probably not of Greek or Indo-European origin,and is possibly a remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica.In antiquity, it was debated whether Athens took its name from its patron Goddess Athena or Athena took her name from the city.Modern scholars now generally agree that the goddess takes her name from the city, because the ending –ene is common in names of locations, but rare for personal names.
According to the ancient Athenian founding myth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, competed against Poseidon, the God of the Seas, for patronage of the yet-unnamed city they agreed that whoever gave the Athenians the better gift would become their patron and appointed Cecrops, the king of Athens, as the judge.According to the account given by Pseudo-Apollodorus, Poseidon struck the ground with his trident and a salt water spring welled up. In an alternative version of the myth from Vergil‘s Georgics, Poseidon instead gave the Athenians the first horse.In both versions, Athena offered the Athenians the first domesticated olive tree.Cecrops accepted this gift and declared Athena the patron goddess of Athens.
Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica that is often referred to as the Athens Basin or the Attica Basin (Greek: Λεκανοπέδιο Αθηνών/Αττικής). The basin is bounded by four large mountains: Mount Aigaleo to the west, Mount Parnitha to the north, Mount Pentelicus to the northeast and Mount Hymettus to the east.Beyond Mount Aegaleo lies the Thriasian plain, which forms an extension of the central plain to the west. The Saronic Gulf lies to the southwest. Mount Parnitha is the tallest of the four mountains (1,413 m (4,636 ft)),and has been declared as national park. The Athens urban area spreads over 50 kilometres (31miles) from Agios Stefanos in the north to Varkiza in the south. The city is located in the north temperate zone, 38 degrees north of the equator.
Athens is built around a number of hills. Lycabettus is one of the tallest hills of the city proper and provides a view of the entire Attica Basin. The meteorology of Athens is deemed to be one of the most complex in the world because its mountains cause a temperature inversion phenomenon which, along with the Greek Government’s difficulties controlling industrial pollution, was responsible for the air pollution problems the city has faced.This issue is not unique to Athens; for instance, Los Angeles and Mexico City also suffer from similar atmospheric inversion problems.The Cephissus river, the Ilisos and the Eridanos stream are the historical rivers of Athens.
The Athens Municipality forms the core and center of Greater Athens, which in its turn consists of the Athens Municipality and 40 more municipalities, divided in four regional units (Central, North, South and West Athens), accounting for 2,641,511 people (in 2011)within an area of 361 sqkm(139sqmiles).Until 2010, which made up the abolished Athens Prefecture and the municipality of Piraeus, the historic Athenian port, with 4 other municipalities make up the regional unit of Piraeus.
The regional units of Central Athens, North Athens, South Athens, West Athens and Piraeus with part of Eastand West Attica regional units combined make up the continuous Athens Urban Area,also called the “Urban Area of the Capital” or simply “Athens” (the most common use of the term), spanning over 412sqkm (159sqmiles),with a population of 3,090,508 people as of 2011. The Athens Urban Area is considered to form the city of Athens as a whole, despite its administrative divisions, which is the largest in Greece and one of the most populated urban areas in Europe.
