The greece map shows one country made of a long mainland, a jagged coast and a wide spread of islands set in the Aegean and Ionian seas. It is the quickest way to see where each place lies before you choose from the tours in Greece that link them.
This page reads the greece map in order: the thirteen regions, the mountains, rivers and gulfs, then each island group, the cities, the ferries and the distances. For trips on the same ground, open greece island hopping tours for the ferry routes, greece mainland tours for the roads inland, greece tour packages for set itineraries, greece history for the past and greece cruise packages for time at sea.
What does the greece map show at a glance?
The greece map shows one country built from a largely mountainous mainland and a large number of islands. Geography of Greece gives the whole area as 131,957 square kilometres. Peninsulas and gulfs fill the coastline, so the outline is easy to recognise at a single look.
The map caption on that page lists its layers. They are cities, main towns, main rivers, islands and selected archaeological sites. A greece map of that kind is a place-finder first. The list also works as a checklist for any map you open.
Land makes up 130,647 square kilometres of that area, and lakes and rivers add 1,310. The same page also splits the territory in another way. The mainland covers 110,496 square kilometres, and the islands cover 21,461. On the greece map, the mainland therefore takes far more room than the islands.
The fact box on the page lists the coastline as 13,676 kilometres. Islands add to that edge, and the Greece article says they extend towards Asia Minor. Gulfs and capes shape the shore. The sections that follow name them one by one.
The mainland is peninsular and juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, as Geography of Greece states. Smaller peninsulas, among them Chalkidiki and the Peloponnese, project from it. These two appear on the greece map as land that reaches out from the mainland.
Read the mainland from north to south. The north includes Macedonia and Thrace. Epirus, Thessaly and Central Greece follow, with Attica and Athens on the southern side. The Corinthian and Saronic Gulfs set the Peloponnese apart. Further south still, a greece map shows the Peloponnese as its own smaller peninsula.
Smaller islands form groups, and Geography of Greece gives the Cyclades and the Dodecanese as two examples. Euboea lies in the Aegean, yet the Aegean Sea page says it is administered as part of Central Greece. Remember that split when you trace regions on the greece map.
The List of islands of Greece names six traditional clusters. Five belong to the Aegean: the Saronic Islands, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese, the North Aegean islands and the Sporades. The sixth, the Ionian Islands, lies chiefly west of the mainland. Crete with its islets and Euboea stand outside the six on the greece map.
Where does the greece map place Greece among its seas and neighbours?
The greece map places Greece in south-eastern Europe, at the southernmost tip of the Balkan Peninsula. Four land neighbours frame it. Albania sits in the north-west, North Macedonia and Bulgaria in the north, and Turkey in the east. The Aegean, Ionian, Cretan and Libyan seas wrap the coast.
Geography of Greece gives the latitude of the country as 35 to 42 degrees north. Its longitude runs from 19 to 28 degrees east. Grid lines on a greece map therefore frame a band seven degrees tall and nine degrees wide. The Greece article places Athens at 37 degrees 58 minutes north and 23 degrees 43 minutes east.
The land borders are four in number. The longest is with Bulgaria at 472 kilometres. North Macedonia follows at 234, then Albania at 212 and Turkey at 192. The page adds these up to approximately 1,110 kilometres in total. A greece map draws them from the north-west of the mainland round to the east.
Westward, a greece map shows the Ionian Sea. Italy lies on its far side, and southern Albania borders it to the north. The sea’s main islands sit in its east and belong to Greece. Ancient Greek writers linked the name to the myth of Io, the Ionian Sea page notes.
The Aegean Sea fills the east side of the greece map. Almost all of the islands inside it belong to Greece, the Aegean Sea page says. West of Karpathos, the same page records the greatest depth of the sea at 2,639 metres.
The Aegean Sea page names two main subdivisions, the Thracian Sea up north and the Sea of Crete down south. It also places the Icarian Sea to the east and the Myrtoan Sea to the west. The Marmara Sea joins the Aegean by the Dardanelles strait and joins the Black Sea by the Bosphorus.
Ancient Greece inhabited the Aegean coast and its islands, the Aegean Sea page notes. The page also mentions richly coloured sediments near Santorini and Milos. Geography of Greece names the Cretan and the Libyan seas along the south of the greece map.
Four points mark the outer edge of the greece map, as Geography of Greece lists them. Ormenio village is the northern point and Gavdos island the southern one. Strongyli island is the eastern point and Othonoi island the western one. Together they set the corners of the frame.
How does the greece map divide the country into regions?
The greece map divides the country into thirteen regions, which the Regions of Greece page calls second-level administrative entities. One autonomous area, Mount Athos, sits beside them as a monastic community under Greek sovereignty, as the page states. Regional units, once called prefectures, divide each region further.
The regions were set up in July of nineteen eighty-six, after a traditional split into broad historical and geographical regions. The newer regions on the greece map largely follow those lines but are smaller. Western Greece had no earlier match, because it joins part of the Peloponnese with part of the old Central Greece.
The Kallikratis Plan made the regions fully separate entities. It took effect on the first of January two thousand eleven. The prefectures were abolished or reformed into regional units. Regions are divided into regional units, so the next layer down on a greece map is the regional unit.
- Attica: seat Athens, 3,808 square kilometres.
- Central Greece: seat Lamia, 15,549 square kilometres.
- Central Macedonia: seat Thessaloniki, the largest region by area.
- Crete: seat Heraklion, 8,336 square kilometres.
- Eastern Macedonia and Thrace: seat Komotini, 14,157 square kilometres.
- Epirus: seat Ioannina, 9,203 square kilometres.
- Ionian Islands: seat Corfu, 2,307 square kilometres, the smallest region.
- North Aegean: seat Mytilene, 3,836 square kilometres.
- Peloponnese: seat Tripoli, 15,490 square kilometres.
- South Aegean: seat Ermoupoli, 5,286 square kilometres.
- Thessaly: seat Larissa, 14,037 square kilometres.
- Western Greece: seat Patras, 11,350 square kilometres.
- Western Macedonia: seat Kozani, 9,451 square kilometres.
- Mount Athos: seat Karyes, 336 square kilometres.
Mount Athos, called Agion Oros or the Holy Mountain, borders Central Macedonia. The page lists 1,746 people there, far fewer than any region. Its government is monastic. Wikivoyage notes that access to it is restricted.
The same page gives the population of the regions as 200,642 in the Ionian Islands and 3,784,565 in Attica. Those are the two ends of the range. The area range runs from the Ionian Islands to Central Macedonia in the same way, as the list above shows.
Seven decentralized administrations sit above the regions. Each groups from one to three regions, the page states. A regional governor and a regional council, both elected for five years, run each region itself. A greece map can show these seven areas as well as the thirteen regions.
Wikivoyage cuts the greece map in a simpler way for travellers. It lists the Peloponnese, Central Greece, Thessaly, Northern Greece, the Greek Islands and Crete. Its Central Greece includes Attica, which the administrative list keeps as a region of its own. Northern Greece holds Epirus, Macedonia and Western Thrace.
Which mountains stand out on the greece map?
Mount Olympus stands out on the greece map as the highest point in Greece, at 2,917 metres above sea level. About one million years ago, glaciers covered the massif and carved its plateaus and hollows. Greek myth names it as the home of the gods.
Relief is the first lesson of the greece map. About four-fifths of Greece is mountainous, as the Geography of Greece page states. Flat ground is rare by comparison. Central and western Greece hold high, steep peaks, and canyons cut through them. In the north-east the Rhodope Mountains run along the border with Bulgaria and carry thick forest.
On the greece map the Pindus is the long ridge that parts Epirus from Thessaly and Macedonia. Two forest zones climb its slopes: conifers on the heights and mixed broadleaf trees in the valleys. At 2,637 metres, Mount Smolikas is its summit. Geologically it extends the Dinaric Alps of the western Balkans.
The Pindus is a chain of named mountains: Gramos, Smolikas, Vasilitsa, Tymfi, Lakmos, Tzoumerka, Vardousia and Agrafa. Its extensions run on through the Peloponnese and under the Aegean, where they form islands, Crete among them. They join the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey, so the greece map shows one long mountain system.
On the greece map, Olympus is a massif with 52 peaks and deep gorges, not a single point. Its highest peak, Mytikas, carries a Greek name that means nose. Stefani, also called the Throne of Zeus, stands beside it at 2,911 metres. Skolio, the second highest sub-peak, rises to 2,905 metres.
The massif is almost round, with a circumference of 80 kilometres and an average diameter of 26 kilometres. The small river Enipeas rises at Prionia and splits the massif near Litochoro on its way to the Aegean Sea. Further east, the plain of Dion is fertile, watered by streams that rise on Olympus.
In the south, the Taygetus massif runs for about 100 kilometres. Greek National Road 82 crosses it and links Kalamata to Sparta. Its top, Profitis Ilias, is the highest in the Peloponnese, above 2,400 metres. The range overlooks both cities. On the greece map it is the long ridge of the south.
Mount Parnassus spreads across Boeotia, Phthiotis and Phocis in Central Greece. Its summit, Liakoura, stands at 2,457 metres. Its rock is limestone, and it also holds bauxite, an ore of aluminium that is mined. On the greece map, the Boeotian Cephissus valley bounds it in the east and the Amfissa valley in the west.
Crete has its own giant, Mount Ida, the highest mountain of the island, in the Rethymno regional unit. The massif around it is called Psiloritis, and its summit is 2,456 metres high. Lefka Ori, the White Mountains, reach 2,452 metres. On the greece map, Parnassus stands one metre higher than Ida.
Which rivers, lakes and plains appear on the greece map?
On the greece map, the longest river wholly inside the country is the Haliacmon, at 297 kilometres. Its course lies in Western and Central Macedonia. Three longer rivers, the Evros, the Strymon and the Axios, rise abroad and run less far inside Greece.
The Haliacmon crosses five regional units: Kastoria, Grevena, Kozani, Imathia and Pieria. Its drainage basin covers 8,813 square kilometres. Follow it on the greece map and it ends in the Thermaic Gulf. The Axios and other rivers also reach the sea there.
The Axios, called the Vardar in North Macedonia, is 388 kilometres long. Of that course, 76 kilometres lie in Greece. On the greece map it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. Homer’s Iliad already names it as the home of the Paeonians, allies of Troy.
On the greece map the Strymon enters Greece near the village of Promachonas. It runs through the Serres regional unit, passes through Lake Kerkini and ends in the Strymonian Gulf, near Amphipolis. The Evros, 480 kilometres long, is the main river of the region of Thrace.
On the greece map the Acheloos is the river of the west. It is 220 kilometres long and starts on Lakmos mountain in the Pindus, at about 2,000 metres. It empties into the Ionian Sea. The ancient writer Herodotus noted that it had already turned half of the Echinades islands into mainland.
No natural lake in the country is bigger than Lake Trichonida, south-east of the city of Agrinio. It covers 98.6 square kilometres. On the greece map, Lake Volvi in the Thessaloniki regional unit lies east of Lake Koroneia. The Roman road Via Egnatia runs along its northern shore. Volvi is the second largest lake, with 68 square kilometres.
Lake Kerkini is a reservoir on the Strymon and a leading birdwatching site in Greece. It lies along a flyway of migrating birds. Lake Prespa lies where Greece, Albania and North Macedonia meet. An isthmus splits it into a large and a small lake, Great and Little Prespa. Each of the three countries has a national park around the lakes.
The greece map shows three plains. The Thessalian Plain lies in eastern Thessaly. Thessaly’s main river, the Pineios, flows east from the central Pindus into the Thermaic Gulf. The Thessaloniki-Giannitsa Plain lies in central Macedonia, and plains also lie in Thrace. River silt has shrunk the Thermaic Gulf, and Pella, once a seaside city, now lies inland.
Which gulfs, capes and peninsulas shape the greece map?
On the greece map, the Peloponnese hangs from the southern tip of the mainland. Three administrative regions share the peninsula: Peloponnese, Western Greece and Attica. Near Corinth, a narrow land bridge ties it to the rest of Greece. A gulf lies on each side.
The land bridge is low and rises only to about 60 metres. The philosopher Plato placed the ancient edge of Attica at this isthmus. Six bridges cross the Corinth Canal: two for roads, two for railways and two submersible ones. Since the canal was cut, the Peloponnese is in effect an island on the greece map.
A ferry crosses the Gulf of Corinth between Aigio and Agios Nikolaos. A tectonic rift made the gulf, and it still widens by 10 millimetres a year. At its western end the Rion Strait opens into the Gulf of Patras. That gulf is 40 to 50 kilometres long. On the greece map, Patras is its only major port.
On the greece map the Saronic Gulf also carries the name Gulf of Aegina. Its islands include Aegina, Salamis, Poros, Patroklos and Fleves. Beaches line the coast from Poros to Epidaurus. The volcano of Methana stands on the south-west shore. It is the north-western end of an arc of volcanoes that includes Milos, Santorini and Nisyros.
On the greece map, the Thermaic Gulf touches Pieria, Imathia and Larissa in the west and Chalkidiki in the east. The name comes from Therma, the ancient town that is now Thessaloniki. The gulf is about 100 kilometres long. Cape Kassandra marks its south-eastern corner. Besides the port of Thessaloniki, twelve small ports serve the gulf.
Chalkidiki reaches into the north-west Aegean as three prongs. Its largest towns are Nea Moudania and Nea Kallikrateia, and the capital is Polygyros. Inland, the Cholomontas mountains reach 1,165 metres near Taxiarchis. Ouranoupolis, a resort town, lies at Mount Athos. Athos, the third prong, rises to 2,033 metres.
On the greece map, Cape Sounion is where the Lavrio region of Attica ends. The south of Attica holds the mountains of Lavrio, Paneio and Laureotic Olympus. Athens built walls at Sounion, Thoricus and Rhamnus to protect the mines at Laurium. The Temple of Poseidon at the cape dates from about 440 BC.
Read the greece map downwards and the mainland ends at Cape Matapan, its southernmost point. The cape lies at the end of the Mani Peninsula and has a second name, Cape Tainaron. It separates the Messenian Gulf in the west from the Laconian Gulf in the east. Greek legend placed the home of Hades in a cave near ancient Taenarum.
What do Attica and Central Greece show on the greece map?
On the greece map, Attica is a triangular peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. It holds Athens, the capital of Greece. Boeotia borders it on the north. Boeotia belongs to Central Greece, whose administrative capital is Lamia.
The southwestern shore of Attica, called the Athens Riviera, forms the eastern coast of the Saronic Gulf. Cape Sounion marks the southeastern tip of the peninsula. Look for both names on the greece map: one lies on the southwest coast and one at the southeast tip.
Pine and fir forests cover the ground around Parnitha, and pines also grow on Hymettus and Penteli. Inside the Athenian plain, the hills include Lykavittos, Philopappou and the Acropolis itself. The Kifisos begins near Varibobi and ends in the delta of Faliro. A relief greece map shows this basin of hills, forest and river.
Ancient Attica had three zones: the city with its port at Piraeus, the coast and the inland. Today the administrative region reaches past the peninsula. Cythera, the Saronic Islands and Troizinia, which sits on the Peloponnesian mainland, all count as Attica. Region lines therefore differ from the peninsula’s shape.
Central Greece has two meanings. As an administrative region, it has Lamia as its capital city. As a traditional region, it is called Sterea Ellada, meaning Continental Greece. Wikivoyage adds that it is colloquially known as Roumeli. Keep both meanings in mind when you read the greece map.
The traditional region covers the southern mainland, apart from the Peloponnese. It also includes the island of Euboea. Wikivoyage lists Boeotia, Phthiotis, Phocis, Evrytania and Aetolia-Acarnania as its mainland parts. Lamia, on the slopes of Mount Othrys, was already inhabited in the third millennium BC.
Euboea lies right beside the mainland. The Euripus Strait between the island and Boeotia measures just 40 metres across at its narrowest. The island is about 180 kilometres long, and its highest point is 1,743 metres. Chalcis is its capital. On the greece map, Euboea reads as a long, narrow island.
Three names mark this land for travellers. Mount Parnassus was regarded as a principal abode of Apollo and the Muses. The archaeological district of Delphi is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Thermopylae, a narrow coastal passage, is linked to a battle fought in 480 BC. Pin all three on the greece map.
What do Thessaly, Epirus and Western Greece show on the greece map?
Thessaly, Epirus and Western Greece have their seats at Larissa, Ioannina and Patras on the greece map. Larissa is the capital of Thessaly. Ioannina is the seat of the Greek region of Epirus. Western Greece has Patras as its capital and its largest city.
In legend, the Argonauts began their search for the Golden Fleece on the Magnesia Peninsula. On the greece map, Macedonia lies to its north and Central Greece to its south. Epirus is the western neighbour, and the Aegean Sea is the eastern edge. The Sporades islands belong to the region too.
The Plain of Thessaly lies between Mount Olympus and Mount Othrys. Wikivoyage lists Olympos National Park, home of the highest mountain in Greece, among the other destinations of Thessaly. The plain is the flat centre of the region on the greece map, with mountain walls on two sides.
Two more Thessaly names reach beyond the plain. Kalambaka is noted for the Meteora monasteries located there. Pelion is a mountainous peninsula with trails, beaches and 24 villages built in the local style. Volos is the port on the way to Pelion and the islands.
The Greek region of Epirus lies in the north-west. Its eastern boundary is the Pindus range, which separates it from Macedonia and Thessaly. To the west it faces the Ionian Sea. Corfu sits off the Epirote coast but is not part of Epirus. A map draws these lines clearly.
Epirus carries a name that means mainland in Ancient Greek. Wikivoyage names Ioannina as the capital of the province, with a lake of the same name. Dodona, 15 kilometres south of the city, holds a cluster of archaeological sites. Its oracle was the oldest in ancient Greece. Both places belong on the greece map.
In the mountainous interior, the Zagori area holds 46 traditional villages. The Vikos-Aoos National Park and the Vikos gorge are its landmarks. On the coast, Igoumenitsa is a port city with ferry connections to Italy and Corfu. The A2 motorway starts there and runs to Thessaloniki by way of Ioannina and Metsovo.
Western Greece is a modern region. It comprises the western part of continental Greece and the northwestern part of the Peloponnese. It had no earlier counterpart, so it takes land from both the Peloponnese and the traditional Central Greece. It covers 11,336 square kilometres. A greece map with region lines shows that crossing of the old divide.
Western Greece has three regional units: Aetolia-Acarnania, Achaea and Elis. Its major communities include Messolonghi, Nafpaktos, Kalavryta, Amaliada and Olympia. The Rio-Antirrio bridge stands near the northern tip of the Peloponnese. On the greece map, it joins the peninsula to the mainland.
What do Macedonia and Thrace show on the greece map?
Macedonia is a highly mountainous part of Northern Greece, and on the greece map its southern coast holds Thessaloniki. It covers 34,177 square kilometres. Thrace lies in the north-east, and the Evros river marks the line between Western and Eastern Thrace.
Macedonia widely forms the land borders of Greece with its northern neighbours. Albania lies to the north-west, North Macedonia to the north and Bulgaria to the north-east. The greece map shows those three edges along the top of the country.
Macedonia is a geographic region and no longer an administrative one. Three modern regions share its land. Western Macedonia has Kozani as its seat. Central Macedonia has Thessaloniki. Part of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace has Komotini. Check those region names on the greece map before you read a border.
Thessaloniki is the metropolis of Macedonia. Katerini and Kavala also stand on the southern coastline. Stagira, the birthplace of Aristotle, lies in the region too. That sea edge is where the greece map gathers the big city names of Macedonia.
The Cholomontas mountains in north-central Chalkidiki peak at 1,165 metres near Taxiarchis. The peninsula reaches into the northwestern Aegean Sea, and Polygyros, its capital, lies at the middle of it. Nea Moudania is the biggest town. Find Chalkidiki on the greece map in that corner of the Aegean.
Geologically, the Athos peninsula continues the Rhodope Mountains, unlike Sithonia and Kassandra. Its mountain has steep slopes and a summit of 2,033 metres. The peninsula covers 335.6 square kilometres. A monastic community governs it as an autonomous region. On the greece map, it stands as a separate unit.
Macedonia holds four UNESCO World Heritage sites. Aigai, the modern Vergina, lies about 12 kilometres from Veria and was the first Macedonian capital. Alexander the Great was born at Pella, which replaced Aigai as the capital. Pella lies about 7 kilometres from Giannitsa. Both names belong on the greece map.
Thrace is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe. It covers south-eastern Bulgaria, north-eastern Greece and the European part of Turkey. The Greek part is Western Thrace. The modern region named Eastern Macedonia and Thrace has Komotini as its seat. The greece map shows only the Greek share, in the north-east.
The Evros river, also called the Maritsa, runs through Thrace. It forms the modern border between Western and Eastern Thrace. The Rhodope Mountains form the border between Greece and Bulgaria, in an area of thick forests. Alexandroupolis and Kavala are notable cities on the Aegean coast. These names fill the north-east corner of the greece map.
What does the Peloponnese show on the greece map?
A narrow waterway, the Corinth Canal, separates the Peloponnese from the mainland on the greece map. Wikivoyage adds that bridges span the cut and connect the peninsula with Attica. Wikipedia describes a mountainous interior and a coast with four peninsulas that point south.
The peninsula has three names: Peloponnese, Peloponnesus and Morea. The first two come from Pelops, a hero of Greek myth, and mean the island or peninsula of Pelops. Morea is the third name, still heard in colloquial speech in its demotic form. Morea on an older greece map names the same place.
An old defensive wall, the Hexamilion, once crossed the isthmus, built after a raid in the late fourth century. Builders cut the canal at sea level, and it measures 6.3 kilometres. Submersible bridges stand at both ends of the canal, north and south. The greece map therefore shows a peninsula joined by bridges.
Wikipedia counts four peninsulas that point south, and the Mani is one of them. Wikivoyage places Diros Cave there, near the town of the same name in Laconia. Gulfs named Messenian, Laconian and Argolic lie between the peninsulas. Together they give the coast its indented line on the greece map.
The peninsula has a mountainous interior, and Mount Taygetus in the south is its highest peak, at 2,407 metres. Cyllene in the north-east reaches 2,376 metres and Aroania in the north 2,355 metres. Wikipedia also names Erymanthos, Mainalon, Parnon and Panachaikon. On the greece map these peaks fill the interior.
Lowlands break up the mountains. Three rivers stand out: the Alfeios runs 110 kilometres, the Evrotas 82 and the Pineios 70. On the greece map Sparta stands in the Evrotas Valley. Mount Taygetus rises to the west of the city, as Wikivoyage places it. Wikipedia adds lowlands in the west and on the Argolid.
Seven regions have divided the peninsula since antiquity. Arcadia holds the centre. Achaea takes the north, Corinthia the north-east and Argolis the east. Laconia takes the south-east, Messenia the south-west and Elis the west. Wikipedia adds that a city heads each region, and names Patras in Achaea and Kalamata in Messenia as the largest.
Three administrative regions share the peninsula on the greece map today. The Peloponnese region holds the larger part, while smaller parts fall within Western Greece and Attica. The traditional capitals are Tripoli and Nafplio. Off the eastern shore lie the Argo-Saronic Islands, and off the western shore lie the Ionian Islands.
Where does Crete sit on the greece map?
Crete closes the country in the south on the greece map, where the Aegean Sea ends to the north of it. Greece has no larger island. Heraklion, the capital and largest city, stands on the north shore, as Wikipedia states. Wikivoyage places the island south of the Peloponnese.
Wikipedia lists Crete in the Eastern Mediterranean, south of almost all the rest of the country. The Geography of Greece article puts the island about 160 kilometres south of the mainland. The greece map puts the Dodecanese north-east of the island, with the Cyclades to its north.
Four named seas border the island, and each takes a side. Wikipedia gives the north to the Sea of Crete and the south to the Libyan Sea. The west belongs to the Myrtoan Sea and the east to the Carpathian Sea. As a region, Crete is the southernmost of the thirteen top-level administrative units of Greece.
Crete is long and thin. It covers 260 kilometres from west to east. From north to south it is narrow, with 60 kilometres at the widest point. Wikivoyage gives the same length and width. The greece map draws a long horizontal strip with its narrowest point near Ierapetra.
On the greece map the coastline of Crete is 1,046 kilometres long. The north side holds Souda Bay and the gulfs of Kissamos, Chania, Heraklion, Mirabello and Sitia. Cape Lithinon and the Gulf of Messaras mark the south side. Wikivoyage lists Gramvousa and Elafonisi as small islands, each with a beach.
Mountains define Crete, and Wikipedia counts six groups. The highest point, Mount Ida, stands in the Idi Range, and the White Mountains form another group. Kedros reaches 1,777 metres, Thrypti 1,489 metres and the Asterousia Mountains 1,231 metres. On the greece map the Lasithi Plateau sits at 840 metres, as Wikivoyage gives it.
Wikivoyage lists the four units from the west: Chania, Rethymnon, Heraklion and Lasithi. It places the palace of Knossos in the Heraklion unit. Heraklion also has a harbour with structures from the Venetian period. Rethymnon lies beneath a massive Venetian fortress. On the greece map Sitia marks the far eastern tip.
Wikivoyage places the major settlements along the northern coast. Two Greek words help a reader here. Epano names an old upper village, and kato names a newer lower village near the water. On the greece map Ierapetra is the southernmost city of Europe, about 645 kilometres from the coast of Libya.
How does the greece map show the Cyclades?
The Cyclades circle the small island of Delos on the greece map. The Greek name Kyklades means surrounding islands, as Wikipedia explains. Wikivoyage places the group in the southern Aegean and adds that only 33 of its islands are inhabited.
On the greece map the Cyclades lie south-east of the Greek mainland, with Athens to their north. Ermoupoli, a port town on Syros, is the regional capital of the South Aegean. Wikipedia counts nine regional units inside that region, and a number of them are single islands. Wikivoyage describes Kea as close to Athens.
Wikipedia’s count for the archipelago is about 220 islands. It names the major ones, among them Amorgos, Antiparos, Kythnos, Sifnos, Sikinos and Folegandros. Wikivoyage adds that Amorgos has a monastery. The greece map also holds the Lesser Cyclades, which Wikipedia lists as Donousa, Irakleia, Koufonisia and Schoinousa among others.
On the greece map Naxos has the largest area of any Cycladic island, and Chora is its capital. Paros is composed of marble, and Wikipedia traces the term Parian to its fine white marble. Antiparos lies west of Paros, and the channel between them is less than 2 kilometres wide.
On the greece map Andros anchors the northern end of the chain. It stretches nearly 40 kilometres, and its largest towns are Andros, Gavrio, Batsi and Ormos Korthiou. Tinos lies to its south. Tsiknias, at 750 metres, is the highest mountain on Tinos, and Wikivoyage calls its cathedral a major pilgrimage site.
No river crosses Mykonos, and Wikipedia mentions seasonal streams, two of which have become reservoirs. The largest town, Mykonos, is also named Chora and stands on the west coast. On the greece map Syros holds two towns. Ermoupoli stands on a natural amphitheatre, with houses running down to the harbour. Ano Syros is the second town, built on a hill.
The greece map shows Milos as a volcanic island with a natural harbour that Wikipedia ties to its principal crater. Wikipedia records a long trade in Milos obsidian, carried far from the island well before farming began. Mount Profitis Elias, at 748 metres, is the high point in the west. Kimolos is its small satellite island.
Ios is a hilly island, with cliffs that descend steeply to the sea. It lies halfway between Naxos and Santorini, in the Thira regional unit. On the greece map Sifnos has the port of Kamares. Wikivoyage lists Apollonia and Artemona as its adjacent main towns.
Santorini carries a second name, Thira, on the greece map. It is volcanic, like Milos. The Santorini archipelago has Fira as its capital, per Wikivoyage. Thirassia is a small satellite island. It formed one island with Santorini until a huge volcanic eruption in the second millennium BC. Anafi lies east of Santorini and Folegandros to its west.
How does the greece map show the Dodecanese and the North Aegean?
On the greece map the Dodecanese lie east of the Cyclades, with Turkey on their eastern side. Rhodes covers 1,401 square kilometres, the biggest area in the group, and Kastellorizo lies furthest east. The North Aegean islands lie to the north and are scattered rather than linked.
Karpathos shares a regional unit with Kasos, and the islet of Saria joins it in one municipality. Its highest point is Kali Limni, at 1,215 metres. On the greece map it is Karpathos; the Latin name was Carpathus and the Italian name Scarpanto. Its remote location kept its own dress, customs and dialect, as Wikipedia notes.
With 290.3 square kilometres, Kos comes third in size in its group, after Rhodes and Karpathos. On the greece map it belongs to a mountain chain that earthquakes and subsidence broke apart. The remnants include Kalymnos and the volcano of Nisyros. Pserimos, between Kos and Kalymnos, covers 11 square kilometres.
Read the chain on the greece map from Rhodes outwards. Symi sits between Rhodes and Kos, and Tilos sits between Kos and Rhodes. Astypalaia lies between Kos and Amorgos, which belongs to the Cyclades. Wikivoyage describes Symi as small and Tilos as small and remote.
Kalymnos covers 109 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. Three main chains run across it from west-north-west to east-south-east, and its coastline is very irregular. Telendos lies across a channel about 800 metres wide. On the greece map Leros stands north of Kalymnos, and a series of islets links the two.
Leros has a coastline of 71 kilometres and lies 317 kilometres from Piraeus. Patmos, Lipsi and Kalymnos are its nearby islands. Profitis Ilias, at 269 metres, is the highest point of Patmos. The island lies further west than its neighbours, and its municipality includes the offshore islands of Arkoi and Marathos.
On the greece map Kastellorizo lies about 570 kilometres south-east of Athens and 125 kilometres east of Rhodes. Its summit, Vigla, rises to 270 metres. It belongs to the Rhodes regional unit. The islets of Ro, Strongyli and Psomi belong to its small archipelago. Its area is 11.98 square kilometres.
On the greece map the North Aegean islands are no tidy chain. Wikipedia calls them scattered and notes that lists group them for tourist or administrative purposes. Lesbos is the largest of them, with 1,633 square kilometres and about 400 kilometres of coastline. Thasos lies about 7 kilometres from the northern mainland and 20 kilometres south-east of Kavala.
Two mountains, Ampelos and Kerkis, dominate the relief of Samos. The Ampelos massif fills its centre and rises to 1,095 metres. The Aitheras range crosses Ikaria from east to west, and its top stands at 1,037 metres. Pelineon, at 1,297 metres, is a main peak of Chios. Lemnos is mostly flat, while Thasos is round, without deep bays.
Where do the Ionian Islands and the Sporades sit on the greece map?
On the greece map the major islands of the Ionian Sea lie in its eastern part, near the Greek coast. The Sporades lie north-east of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. The Ionian group counts seven principal islands, and four of the Sporades are inhabited.
Three countries share the Ionian Sea basin: Albania, Greece and Italy. Its Greek towns include Igoumenitsa, Parga, Preveza and Patras. On the greece map the Greek shore runs south to the Peloponnese, where Pylos and Kalamata lie. Wikipedia adds that every major island in the sea belongs to Greece.
Wikivoyage names three island capitals on the greece map. Corfu Town serves Corfu and the region, Zante serves Zakynthos, and Argostoli serves Kefalonia. The table of Greek islands gives Kefalonia 781 square kilometres, Corfu 592.9 and Ithaca 96.2. Ithaca is the smallest of the five main islands that Wikipedia names.
The traditional name Heptanese counts seven principal islands. Six of them lie in the Ionian Sea. Kythira, the seventh, lies far to the south, below the Peloponnese. The greece map shows it apart from the chain. Wikipedia gives the whole group an area of 2,306.94 square kilometres.
The islands also carry Italian names from the centuries of Venetian rule. Wikipedia lists Ithaki as Val di Compare, Kythera as Cerigo, Lefkada as Santa Maura and Zakynthos as Zante. A traveller who finds such a name on a greece map is still looking at the same island.
On the greece map the Sporades lie in the Aegean Sea, off the mainland’s east coast. The archipelago has 24 islands, and people live all year on four of them: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos and Skyros. The municipality of Alonnisos includes the islands Adelfoi, Gioura, Kyra Panagia, Peristera, Piperi, Psathoura and Skantzoura.
The main port of Skopelos lies in a bay on the north coast. Glossa stands at the north-western tip, 25.4 kilometres from Skopelos town. Delphi, at 681 metres, and Palouki, at 546 metres, are its two mountains over 500 metres. On the greece map Alonnisos is 20 kilometres long, and its widest point measures 4.5 kilometres.
The label Sporades needs care on a greece map. The name means those scattered, and Wikipedia lists five groups that carry it. Since about nineteen sixty it refers mainly to the Northern islands. Skyros sits in the Euboea regional unit, which is part of Central Greece. The Sporades regional unit is part of Thessaly.
Which smaller island groups appear on the greece map?
The smaller groups on the greece map are the Saronic Gulf islands near Athens and Euboea beside the mainland. Kythira and Antikythera lie south of the Peloponnese, and Gavdos lies south of Crete. Wikipedia and Wikivoyage describe each one by its larger neighbour.
On the greece map Salamis covers 93 square kilometres, and Mavrovouni, at 404 metres, is its highest point. A significant part of the island is rocky and mountainous. A pine forest grows in the south. Paloukia, on the eastern side, is the main port for the mainland ferry.
Mount Oros, a conical peak of 531 metres in the south, is the highest rise on Aegina. On the greece map the Panhellenian ridge stretches north from it. The municipality of Aegina is subdivided into five communities. Poros has its highest peak, Vigla, at 358 metres. Hydra has one main town, Hydra port, around a crescent-shaped harbour.
On the greece map Agistri covers 13.367 square kilometres and has three settlements. Spetses covers 27.121 square kilometres. The municipality of Hydra, with Dokos and other small islets, covers 64.443 square kilometres. The municipality of Poros covers 49.582 square kilometres and includes part of the neighbouring Peloponnese coast.
Nature divides Euboea into three parts: a fertile and forested north, a forested and mountainous centre, and a barren south. On the greece map it is the second largest Greek island, with 3,684 square kilometres. Its main mountains are Kantili at 1,246 metres, Pyxaria at 1,341 and Ochi at 1,394. Dirfi tops the list at 1,743 metres.
The Pagasetic Gulf lies north of Euboea. The South Euboean Gulf and the Petalion Gulf lie to its south. The Petalioi archipelago is off Euboea to the south-west, and the Monilia group is off its west side. On the greece map the Euripus Strait narrows to 40 metres at Chalcis. Wikipedia dates the first bridge there to 410 BC.
Wikipedia places Kythira at the south-western exit of the Aegean Sea, behind Cape Malea. On the greece map it stands between the Greek mainland and Crete. Steep rocky cliffs and deep bays shape its shores. The municipal unit is divided into 13 communities, and Antikythera forms a second municipal unit beside it.
Antikythera is the part of Attica that lies furthest from the Athens metropolitan area. It lies 38 kilometres south-east of Kythira and covers 20.43 square kilometres. It measures 10.5 kilometres by 3.4 kilometres. Potamos is the main settlement and port. Wikivoyage ties the Antikythera mechanism to a Roman cargo ship that sank off the island.
On the greece map Gavdos is roughly triangular, and Mount Vardia, at 345 metres, is its highest point. A rocky peninsula called Trypiti forms the south-eastern corner, with a natural arch. Kastri is the capital, and the largest man-made harbour is at Karave. The islet of Gavdopoula, little Gavdos, lies to the north-west.
Which cities and ports mark the greece map?
Athens is the largest point on the greece map. Its metropolitan area has 3,638,281 people, as the Athens article states. Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion, Larissa, Volos and Ioannina follow as the other cities a traveller looks for. Piraeus, Thessaloniki, Patras, Heraklion and Volos are also ports.
Wikivoyage Athens counts twelve hills inside the city, with the Acropolis and Lykavittos standing out. The Athens article names Attica as its region. The city streets run on into Piraeus without a visible break. The greece map shows the capital as a basin between hills and sea.
The Port of Piraeus article describes a rocky island. Silt joined it to Attica for good in the third millennium BC. Athens has used this harbour since ancient times. The metro station next to the port joins Line 1 and Line 3. On the greece map, Piraeus is where the island lines begin.
Thessaloniki has 319,045 people in its municipality and slightly over one million in its metropolitan area. Cassander of Macedon founded the city on the Thermaic Gulf in 315 BC. The article gives it a Greek nickname that means the co-capital. The greece map marks it as the capital of the Macedonia region.
Patras comes third, with 215,922 people in its municipality. The article places it in the Peloponnese and in the Western Greece region. It calls Patras the Gate to the West. That nickname makes Patras the western door of the greece map. The city has a lower and an upper section, joined by roads and broad stairs.
Heraklion is the capital of Crete, with 179,302 people in its municipality. Its Venetian wall has seven bastions, and parts of it reach 40 metres in thickness. Direct ferries serve Naxos, Karpathos, Kasos, Sitia, Anafi, Chalki and Diafani. Daily ferries serve Piraeus. On the greece map it links Crete to the Cyclades and the Dodecanese.
Larissa has 148,562 people in the city proper, which makes it the fifth city by population. The municipality has 164,095 people, and the regional unit has 268,963. The article calls Larissa a principal agricultural centre. On the greece map, Larissa is the farming centre of Thessaly.
As for age, its article ranks Volos as the newest Greek port city. It has 85,803 people. Ioannina lies inland. The city proper has 64,896 people and the municipality 113,978. On the greece map, Volos is a coast stop and Ioannina is an inland stop.
How do roads, ferry lines and airports appear on the greece map?
Motorways carry the letter A on the greece map, and national roads carry the letters EO. Each is followed by a number, as the Highways in Greece article states. Ferry lines start at ports, and airports mark the flight links. The three networks together show how a traveller moves between the mainland and the islands.
Two north-south motorways frame the mainland. The Greece article places the A1 along the eastern coastline, from Athens to Thessaloniki. It places the A5, the Ionia Odos, along the western coastline. On the greece map the two roads mark the east side and the west side of the mainland.
The Egnatia Odos, numbered A2, is the longest motorway in the country. It ends at the Kipoi border crossing with Turkey. The A8 runs from Athens by Elefsina and Corinth to Patras. On the greece map it joins Athens and Patras by motorway.
Crete has its own road. The A90, the North Road Axis of Crete, is Greece’s only motorway not on the mainland. Its planned length is 310 kilometres, from Sitia in the east to Kissamos in the west. The article calls it a motorway under construction, so check the status of the line before a trip.
The Greece article says all major islands are served by ferries to the mainland. Those lines start at a short list of ports. Piraeus, Rafina and Lavrio serve Athens. Patras and Igoumenitsa face Italy, Volos serves the Sporades, and Kavala serves the North Aegean islands. Each port is a starting dot for a line.
The Transport in Greece article counts sixteen civil international airports. Athens International Airport is the main hub, says Wikivoyage Greece. Thessaloniki Airport has year-round direct flights from all over Europe. Heraklion, Rhodes and Corfu follow as key hubs for tourists in summer. Look for those five airports first on the greece map.
Athens International Airport serves the Athens metropolitan area and the region of Attica. The Attiki Odos reaches it from the centre and the north, and Varis-Koropiou Avenue from the west. Heraklion airport is the second busiest in Greece. The Hellenic Air Force also uses its airfield, through a combat group.
Wikivoyage Greece places the bulk of the rail traffic on the Athens-Thessaloniki line and the suburban lines of both cities. Three other lines carry a train or two each day: Thessaloniki-Florina, Lamia-Trikala and Thessaloniki-Serres. On the greece map, read that corridor as the main rail line.
How do distances and travel times read on the greece map?
A distance measured across the greece map is a straight line. Roads and sea routes bend around hills and gulfs. The Patras article puts that city 215 kilometres west of Athens by road and 134 kilometres west of Corinth. Each figure belongs to one route.
Patras gives a clear road example. Its article lists the city 144 kilometres north-west of Tripoli. It adds 94 kilometres north-east of Pyrgos and 7 kilometres south of Rio. A road figure belongs to a road, so check the route behind each number on the greece map.
Thessaloniki Airport lies 15 kilometres south of the city centre, says Wikivoyage Thessaloniki. The bus ride into the centre takes around 40 minutes. Flights from Thessaloniki to Athens take around 50 minutes, the same page states. Add such local rides to the flight time when you read the greece map.
Athens has its own gap between airport and city. Wikivoyage Athens says the airport trains run every 36 minutes. Buses run 24 hours a day, unlike the metro. A time on the greece map therefore depends on the hour of travel.
Sea crossings turn short gaps into hours. From the mainland, Wikivoyage Cyclades gives four to five hours to Mykonos, Tinos, Syros, Kythnos and Sifnos. It gives eight to ten hours to Santorini, the furthest, with the number of stops deciding the time. Fast boats halve those times. Note such times beside the lines of the greece map.
Crete adds two more figures. Wikivoyage Crete says ferries from Piraeus to Chania and Heraklion take close to eight and a half hours. They are mainly night ferries. Flights from Heraklion and Chania to Thessaloniki take close to an hour and a half. A time on the greece map therefore belongs to one mode of travel.
The Adriatic gives the long end of the scale. Wikivoyage Greece says the sailing takes about eight hours at the shortest, from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa. It takes 26 hours at the longest, from Venice to Patras. Both lines reach the western limit of the greece map.
Flying shrinks the distances on the greece map. Wikivoyage Greece says an hour in the air from Athens or Thessaloniki reaches the greater part of the country. The popular islands receive direct European flights in summer. In winter a domestic flight through Athens is the only air route to them.
Motorway lengths give the long road scale. The Highways in Greece article puts the A1 at around 550 kilometres and the A2 at 670 kilometres. Both cross the mainland, one north to south and one east to west. Both are road lengths, so a straight line on the greece map is shorter.
What else do travellers ask about the greece map?
What is the island count of the greece map, and which islands are inhabited?
No single island count exists for the greece map, because the total depends on the smallest size a counter includes. The List of islands of Greece page lets the estimate start near 1,200 and end at 6,000. For inhabited islands it states 166 at the low end and 227 at the high end.
The Geography of Greece page adds figures. Travel books quote 1,425 islands, with 166 said to have people living on them. The national tourism body counts 6,000, and 227 are settled.
A map maker faces the same cut-off. The Map article says designers must choose which features to show and which to omit. The data exceeds what a page can display. The islands on a greece map therefore depend on the scale chosen.
Euboea lies close to the mainland and belongs to the Central Greece region. The Euripus Strait, 60 metres across, sets the two apart.
Which kind of greece map suits a trip?
A road map suits a drive, because it mainly displays roads and transport links. The Road map article adds that such maps also include airports, train stations and tourism sites. For a mainland route, this kind of greece map answers the first question: how do you get there?
A topographic map suits mountain country. The Geography of Greece page calls the mainland mostly mountainous. The Topographic map article says this type of map depicts ground relief, lakes, rivers and roads in detail.
An island map suits ferry planning. Wikivoyage sorts the islands into seven regions on a colour-coded map. Crete has its own region, and Euboea is read with the mainland. Wikivoyage also notes that ferry routes and frequencies change through the year.
Interactive maps let a user zoom, pan and choose which data to view, the Map article states. A paper greece map offers none of that.
Why does the greece map spell the same place in different ways?
Greek letters can be written in Latin letters in more than one way. One place can therefore carry two or more spellings on a greece map. The Romanization of Greek article shows the word Agios written as Hagios, Agios, Aghios or Ayios.
The Ionian Islands article gives Kefallonia as Cephalonia, Kerkyra as Corcyra and Lefkada as Leucas. Chalkidiki appears as Halkidiki or Chalcidice. Wikivoyage adds that Hora, the main town of an island, is sometimes spelled Khora.
Standards exist. The Hellenic Organization for Standardization worked with ISO on a joint system, and the United Nations took it up. ISO 843 later set its own Type 1 table, which ELOT itself adopted four years after. The Greek government uses the Type 2 scheme of ELOT 743 for names on passports.
Two spellings on two maps can therefore point to one place. Compare the position, not the letters, when you read a greece map.
Where does the greece map end in the north?
The greece map ends in the north at Ormenio, a Thracian village in the municipal unit of Trigono. Wikipedia names it the northernmost place in Greece. The river Evros runs beside it and forms the border with Bulgaria at that point.
Geography of Greece puts the village at about 42 degrees north and 26 degrees east. On the far bank, 6 kilometres to the north, stands the Bulgarian town of Svilengrad. Nearby Greek villages are Ptelea to the south-east and Petrota to the south-west.
Road and rail both reach the village. National Road 51, also European route E85, bypasses the village. Ormenio railway station is Greece’s northernmost and ends the Greek part of the Alexandroupolis to Svilengrad line. Trigono itself is part of the municipality of Orestiada.
The southern end is Gavdos, a roughly triangular island with its high point at Mount Vardia, 345 metres up.
Does the greece map show time zones or the capital?
A greece map needs no time-zone line, because the country lists a single zone. The Greece article sets the clocks to EET, offset UTC+2, and to EEST, offset UTC+3, during summer time. The page lists no second zone for the country.
The capital is Athens, the largest Greek city, in the Attica region. The Athens article puts it close to 38 degrees north and 24 degrees east, inside the north temperate zone.
The same article places the city on the Attica Basin, closed in by four mountains. Aigaleo stands to the west, Parnitha to the north, Pentelicus to the north-east and Hymettus to the east. Parnitha is the tallest of the four.
The Saronic Gulf lies to the south-west. Inside the city, Lycabettus is one of the tallest hills and looks over the whole basin. On a greece map, look for that gulf beside the capital.