1. ATHENS

2. Athens is located at:
• Athens is located in Greece
and is its capital. It is
located near the Southern
tip of the country’s
mainland coast in the
periphery of Attica
and was a powerful city-
state that emerged in
conjunction with the
seagoing development of
the port of Piraeus.

3. Geographic Features of Athens
• Athens sprawls across the
central plain of Attica that
is often referred to as
the Athens or Attica Basin.
The basin is bounded by
four large mountains:
Mount Aegaleo to the west,
Mount Parnitha to the
north, Mount Penteli 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.

4. Climate of Athens
• Athens has a subtropical Mediterranean climate (Köppen
Csa) and receives just enough annual precipitation to avoid
Köppen's BSh (semi-arid climate) classification. The
dominant feature of Athens's climate is alternation between
prolonged hot and dry summers and mild, wet
winters. With an average of 414.1 millimetres (16.30 in) of
yearly precipitation, rainfall occurs largely between the
months of October and April. July and August are the driest
months, where thunderstorms occur sparsely once or twice a
month. Winters are cool and rainy, with a January average
of 8.9 °C (48.0 °F); in Nea Filadelfeia and 10.3
°C (50.5 °F) in Hellinikon; Snowstorms are infrequent but
can cause disruption when they occur. Snowfalls are more
frequent in the northern suburbs of the city.

5. Environment of Athens
Recycling Machines in AthensBy the late 1970s, the
pollution of Athens had
become so destructive that
according to the then
Greek Minister of Culture,
Constantine Trypanis,
"...the carved details on the
five the caryatids of the
Erechtheum had seriously
degenerated, while the face
of the horseman on the
Parthenon's west side was
all but obliterated.“A series
of measures taken by the
authorities of the city
throughout the 1990s
resulted in the
improvement of air quality;
the appearance of smog has
become less common.

6. Demography of Athens
• The ancient site of Athens is centred on the rocky hill of the
acropolis. In ancient times the port of Piraeus was a
separate city, but it has now been absorbed into the Athens
Urban Area. The rapid expansion of the city, which
continues to this day, was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s,
because of Greece's transition from an agricultural to
an industrial nation. The expansion is now particularly
toward the East and North East (a tendency greatly related
to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and
the Attiki Odos, the freeway that cuts across Attica). By this
process Athens has engulfed many former suburbs and
villages in Attica, and continues to do so. The table below
shows the historical population of Athens in recent times.

7. Demography of Athens
• The ancient site of Athens is centred on the rocky hill of the
acropolis. In ancient times the port of Piraeus was a
separate city, but it has now been absorbed into the Athens
Urban Area. The rapid expansion of the city, which
continues to this day, was initiated in the 1950s and 1960s,
because of Greece's transition from an agricultural to
an industrial nation. The expansion is now particularly
toward the East and North East (a tendency greatly related
to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and
the Attiki Odos, the freeway that cuts across Attica). By this
process Athens has engulfed many former suburbs and
villages in Attica, and continues to do so. The table below
shows the historical population of Athens in recent times.