Greece also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic republic is a country in southeastern Europe.
Situated on the southern end of the Balkan peninsula, Greece has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the tenth longest coastline in the world at 14,880 km (9,246 mi) in length, featuring a vast number of islands (approximately 1400, of which 227 are inhabited), including Crete, the Dodecanese, the Cyclades, and the Ionian islands among others. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m (9,570 ft.).
A developed country with an advanced, high-income economy, a very high Human Development Index (22nd highest in the world as of 2010) and consistently high quality of life rankings, Greece has been a member of what is now the European Union since 1981 and the eurozone since 2001, NATO since 1952, and the European Space Agency since 2005. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, the OECD, and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. Athens is the capital and the largest city in the country (its metropolitan area includes also Piraeus); other major cities include Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos andIoannina.
