Greece
Updated: Oct 1, 2022
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Country Name
Greece, or officially the Hellenic Republic, is also known as Hellas.
Location
Greece is a country located in Southeast Europe. Situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, Greece is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa.
It shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia, Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast.
The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south.
Capital
Athens.
Reason for Naming
The native name of the country in Modern Greek is Ελλάδα (Elláda).
The corresponding form in Ancient Greek and conservative formal Modern Greek is Hellas.
The Greek adjectival form ελληνικός (Ellinikos) is sometimes also translated as Hellenic and is often rendered in this way in the formal names of Greek institutions, as in the official name of the Greek state, the Hellenic Republic.
The English names Greece and Greek are derived, via the Latin Graecia and Graecus, from the name of the Graeci, who were among the first ancient Greek tribes to settle Magna Graecia in southern Italy.
The term is ultimately derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *ǵerh₂-, "to grow old".