Physical Geography

Greece is a mountainous country cut by many deep, narrow valleys. There are few basins and plains, and only along part of the coast is there a lowland.

The Pindus Mountains enter from the north and form a rugged backbone for most of the peninsula. The ranges run mainly northwest-southeast and are extremely broken and folded. Many peaks rise to 6,000 feet (1,830 m) above sea level, some to more than 8,000 feet (2,440 m). South of the Peloponnesus, a peninsula that forms the southernmost part of mainland Greece, the mountains curve south- and eastward through the Mediterranean, where the high peaks are exposed as islands.

From the Pindus Mountains a number of ranges run eastward to the Aegean, where they continue as islands. Rising near the sea in the north is Mount Olympus, at 9,570 feet (2,917 m) the country's highest peak.

Northeastern Greece, lying at the head of the Aegean Sea, is less rugged. It consists of rolling plains and hills, low plateaus, and high outlying sections of the Rhodope Mountains of Bulgaria.

The Greek islands—more than 400 in all—make up about a fifth of the country's total area. They are often mountainous and many of them rise abruptly from the sea. The main groups are the Ionian Islands, in the Ionian Sea; and the Northern Sporades, Cyclades, and Sporades, including the Dodecanese Islands, in the Aegean. Crete, Évvoia (Euboea), Lésvos (Lesbos), Rhodes, Khíos, and Kérkira (Corfu) are the largest single islands.

Greece's coast, 9,300 miles (15,000 km) long, is frequently rugged, barren, and deeply indented by the sea. The Akhelóös, Piniós, and Aliákmon are among the chief rivers; like the other rivers, they are short and unnavigable. Many rivers dry up during the long hot summer; some become raging torrents during winter and spring.

The islands and coastal lowlands, where most of the people live, have a Mediterranean type of climate similar to that of southern California. The mountains have a harsher climate.

The Mediterranean climate has mild, rainy winters, hot, dry, sunny summers, and many days of sunshine and blue skies even in winter. Average July temperatures in the lowlands hover around 80° F. (27° C.), but highs of 90° to 100° F. (32° to 38° C.) are not uncommon, especially in the south and east. Average January temperatures range from about 40° to 50° F. (4° to 10° C.), the coolest regions being in the north. Rainfall is generally light and uncertain; droughts frequently occur. Yearly precipitation varies from about 15 inches (380 mm) in the southeast, around Athens, to 50 inches (1,270 mm) or more in the highlands of the northwest. There are occasional light frosts and snows on the lowlands during winter; heavier snows cover the high mountains.

In much of Greece, particularly on many of the islands, the native vegetation consists of small, droughtresistant, evergreen plants and shrubs. In valleys and lowlands, however, are found laurel, myrtle, oleander, cypress, and white poplar, along with olive, almond, fig, and pomegranate trees. Forests cover about 20 per cent of Greece; almost all are of poor quality. Oak, pine, and chestnut grow on lower mountain slopes; beech and fir appear at higher elevations.

Wild animals, few in kind and number, live primarily in the mountains. Among them are bears, wild goats, chamois, jackals, and foxes. There are many native birds.