Greece

Credit: Image credit: Jacques Descloitres; MODIS team; NASA, Posted on: Friday, 27 August 2004, 06:00 CDT Download full size image

Silver and blue waters surround Greece in this true-color Terra MODIS image acquired August 19, 2004. This year, Athens is host to the 2004 Olympic Games, which first started in Greece over 2,800 years ago (in 776 BCE). Athens is the greyish spot roughly in the center of this image on the southern end of the Grecian mainland, though originally the Olympic games were held in the city of Olympia, which was located on the northwestern side of the Peloponnese island. Modern-day Greece is a nation of many islands, but in ancient times, Greece was a loose confederation of city-states that usually only came together as a whole to defend themselves from invaders. Ancient Greece was is often noted for being the birthplace of Western philosophy. Socrates, Isocrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Gorgias are just a few of the most famous philosophers to come out of Greece.

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