Greece


Interesting Facts about Greece
  1. With an area of 50,949 square miles (131,958 square kilometers), Greece is roughly the size of Alabama. The population of Greece is more than 10 million people.—comparatively, the population of Alabama is around 4.5 million.
  2. Approximately 16.5 million tourists visit Greece each year, more than the country’s entire population. Tourism constitutes nearly 16% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).c
  3. No one in Greece can choose to not vote. Voting is required by law for every citizen who is 18 or older.
  4. About 7% of all the marble produced in the world comes from Greece.
  5. Greece has more international airports than most countries because so many foreign tourists want to visit.
  6. The world’s third leading producer of olives, the Greeks have cultivated olive trees since ancient times. Some olive trees planted in the thirteenth century are still producing olives.i
  7. According to Greek mythology, Athena and Poseidon agreed that whoever gave the city the best gift would become guardian over the city. Though Poseidon gave the gift of water, Athena’s gift of an olive tree was deemed by the other gods to be more valuable.

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