4. Flag
•Motto: «Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος» "Liberty or Death"
•Capital : Athens
•Official language : Greek
•Religion: Eastern Orthodoxy
•Government Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic
• Independence declared 25 March 1821
5. Greece has one of the longest histories of any country, and is considered the cradle
of Western civilization, and as such, is the birthplace of democracy,
Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, Western literature, historiography,
political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, and Western drama,
including both tragedy and comedy. Greece was first unified under
Philip of Macedon in the fourth century BC. His son Alexander the Great
rapidly conquered much of the ancient world, spreading Greek culture and science
from the eastern Mediterranean to the Indus River. Annexed by Rome in the second
century BC, Greece became an integral part of the Roman Empire and its
successor, the Byzantine Empire. The first century AD saw the establishment of the
Greek Orthodox Church, which shaped the modern Greek identity and transmitted
Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. Falling under Ottoman dominion in
the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following
the war of independence. Greece's rich historical legacy is reflected in large part by
its 17 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe and the world.
