Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Athens shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Athens offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Athens at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Athens? Wrong! If the Athens is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Athens then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Athens? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Athens and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Athens wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Athens then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Athens site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Athens, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Athens, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

{{Infobox Greek Dimos|name = Athens|name_local = Αθήνα|image_skyline = Acropolis from south-west.jpg|caption_skyline = Acropolis of Athens|prefec = [Athens Prefecture|districts = 7|mayor = Nikitas Kaklamanis|since = January 1, 2007|elevation_min = 70|elevation_max = 338|population_as_of = 2001|population = 745514|area = 38.964|population_metro = 3761810|area_metro = 411.717|postal_code = 10x xx, 11x xx, 120 xx|area_code = 21|licence = Yxx, Zxx, Ixx (excluding INx)|website = www.cityofathens.gr-->

Athens, the [capital and largest city in Greece, dominates the Attica periphery: as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans at least 3,000 years.

Today the Greek capital, Europe's 8th largest conurbation,Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union is rapidly becoming a leading business centre in the European Union. This bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis with an urban population of 3.3 million and a metropolitan population of about 3.8 million people is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece. The city proper has a land area of , while the urban agglomeration of Athens spans . Hellenic Interior Ministry - Accessed on 6 January 2007

Ancient Athens was a powerful city-state. A center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles and its many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, Athens Info Guide: History of Athens - Accessed on 26 January 2007 and the birthplace of democracy, BBC History on Greek Democracy - Accessed on 26 January 2007 largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent. Encarta: Ancient Greece - Retrieved on 26 January 2007

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, portrayed through a number of ancient monuments and artworks; the most famous of all the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, standing as an epic landmark of western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire monuments, as well as a small number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city's long history across the centuries. Landmarks of the modern era are also present, dating back to 1830 (the establishment of the independent Greek state), and taking in the Greek Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy (Library, University, and Academy).

Athens was the host city of the 1896 Summer Olympics in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics, with great success.

Origin of the name , the patron goddess of Athens.

In ancient Greek, the name of Athens was International Phonetic Alphabet , related tο International Phonetic Alphabet and its dialectal variant International Phonetic Alphabet , the Attic Greek and Ionic Greek names respectively of the goddess Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. The city's name may have been in the plural, like those of (Thebes, Greece) and (Mycenae), because it consisted of several parts. In the 19th century, was formally re-adopted as the city's name. Since the official abandonment of Katharevousa Greek in the 1970s, however, the popular form (Athína) has become the city's official name, though the plural may be kept for several purposes in literature. Note that the article is in general use as for all names in Greek, hence its presence here.

History coin, 5th century BC. British Museum.

The history of Athens is one of the longest of any city in, Europe or the world; it has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, with its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laying the foundations of Western civilization. During the Middle Ages, the city experienced decline and then recovery under the Byzantine Empire, and was relatively prosperous during the Crusades, benefiting from Italian trade; after a long period of decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent Greek state, and in 1896 hosted the first modern Olympic Games. In the 1920s a number of refugees, expelled from Asia Minor after the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), swelled Athens' population; nevertheless it was most particularly following the Second World War, and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded, and Athens experienced a gradual expansion in all directions. In the 1980s it became evident that smog from factories and an ever increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to overcongestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenges. A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the Attiki Odos ring road, the dramatic expansion of the Athens Metro, and the brand new Athens International Airport), alleviated pollution considerably and transformed Athens into a much more functional city.

Geography rising in central Athens.

Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica, often referred to as the Attica Basin which is bound by Mount Aegaleo in the west, Mount Parnitha in the north, Mount Penteli in the northeast, Mount Hymettus in the east, and the Saronic Gulf in the southwest. The capital has expanded to cover the entire plain, making future growth difficult. The geomorphology of Athens causes the so-called temperature inversion phenomenon, and along with the failure of the Greek Government to control industrial pollution is responsible for the air pollution problems the city has recently faced. (Los Angeles, California and Mexico City also suffer with similar geomorphology inversion problems). The pollution of Athens was at one point so destructive, that according to the then Greek Ministry of Culture (Greece), Constantine Trypanis, the carved details on the five caryatids of the Erechtheum have seriously degenerated, while the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side is all but obliterated. A series of strict measures then taken by the authorities of the city throughout the 1990s resulted in a dramatic improvement of air quality; the appearance of smog (or nefos as the Athenians used to call it) has become an increasingly rare phenomenon.

Climate Athens is located at a transition point between the Mediterranean and the Alpine climatic zones. The city enjoys a typical Mediterranean climate, with the greatest amounts of Precipitation (meteorology) mainly occurring from mid-October to mid-April; any precipitation is sparse during summer, and falls generally in the form of showers and/or thunderstorms. Due to its location in a strong rain shadow, however, the Athenian climate is very dry compared with most of mediterranean Europe. The mountainous northern suburbs, for their part, experience a somewhat differentiated climate, with generally lower temperatures and more substantial snowfalls in winter. Fog is highly unusual in the city centre, but is more frequent to the east, behind the Hymettus mountain range.



Snowfalls occur every few years, though these do not normally lead to significant, if any, disruption. Nonetheless, the city has experienced its share of snow, not least in the past decade; during the blizzards of March 1987, February 1992, January 2002, February 2004 and January 2006, snow literally blanketed parts of the metropolitan area.

Spring and fall (autumn) are considered ideal seasons for sightseeing and all kinds of outdoor activities. Summers can be particularly hot and at times prone to smog and pollution related conditions (however, much less so than in the past). The average summer daytime maximum temperature is 90 °F (32 °C), and heatwaves are relatively common, occurring generally during the months of July and/or August, when hot air masses sweep across Greece from the south or southwest. On such days only temperature maxima soar over 100 °F (38 °C).

The all-time high temperatures for the metropolitan area of Athens of and were recorded at the Tatoi and Elefsina suburbs on July 10 1977 (HNMS-http://records.e-kairos.com/resultsmax.php), and are also Greece's all-time high temperatures. The respective low-temperature record is -10.4 °C (13.3 °F), recorded at the Votanikos area, close to the city centre. During the February 2004 blizzard (one of the worst snowstorms ever to hit the city), temperatures plummeted to at the National Technical University of Athens Campus, and at the meteorological station of the National Observatory of Athens, in Penteli.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%;border:0px;text-align:center;line-height:120%;"! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080" height="17" |Month! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jan! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Feb! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Mar! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Apr! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | May! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jun! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jul! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Aug! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Sep! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Oct! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Nov! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Dec! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Year|-! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" |Avg high °C (°F)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color:#000000;" | 12.5 (54.5)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color:#000000;" | 13.5 (56.3)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color:#000000;" | 15.7 (60.3)| style="background: #FFFF99; color:#000000;" | 20.2 (68.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 26.0 (78.8)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 31.1 (88.0)| style="background: #FF8001; color:#000000;" | 33.5 (92.3)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 33.2 (91.8)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 29.2 (84.6)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 23.3 (73.9)| style="background: #FFFF99; color:#000000;" | 18.4 (64.6)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color:#000000;" | 14.1 (57.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 22.6 (72.7)|-! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" height="16;" |Avg low °C (°F)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 5.2 (41.4)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 5.4 (41.7)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 6.7 (44.1)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color: black;" | 9.6 (49.3)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 13.9 (57.0)| style="background: #FFFF99; color: black;" | 18.2 (64.8)| style="background: #FFCC66; color: black;" | 20.8 (69.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color: black;" | 20.7 (69.3)| style="background: #FFFF99; color: black;" | 17.3 (63.1)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 13.4 (56.1)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color: black;" | 9.8 (49.6)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 6.8 (44.2)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 12.3 (54.1)|-| colspan="14" style="text-align:center;font-size:90%;"|Source: Hellenic National Meteorological Service |}

Pollution and Environment Air pollution remains to some degree an issue for Athens, particularly on the hottest summer days. Nevertheless, widespread measures taken by the authorities throughout the 1990s have dramatically improved air quality. In late June 2007, the Attica region experienced a number of brush fires, including one that burned a significant portion of a large forested national park in Mount Parnitha - considered critical to maintaining better air in Athens all year round. Damage to the park has led to worries over a stalling in the improvement of air quality in the city.

Athens tap water is safe, and of very good quality. It is comparable to or exceeds the quality of the best US city water systems sourced from higher elevations, and is considered one of the best municipal waters in Europe.

Government

Athens is the capital of Greece, but it is also the capital of the Attica Periphery and the Athens Prefecture. The city has been the capital of Greece since 1834, succeeding Nafplion, the city that was provisional capital during the Greek War of Independence ending in 1832.

Attica Periphery Athens is located within the Attica Peripheries of Greece, which encompasses the most populated region of Greece, with around 3.7 million people. The Attica Periphery itself is split into four prefectures; they include the Athens Prefecture, Piraeus Prefecture, West Attica, and the East Attica. It is, however, one of the smaller peripheries in Greece, with an area of .

Athens Prefecture The Athens Prefecture is the most populous of all the Greek Prefectures, accounting for well over 2.6 million of the 3.7 million in the Attica Periphery. Athens can refer either to the entire metropolitan area, or to the Municipality of Athens. The next largest municipalities of Athens metropolitan area are the Piraeus, the Peristeri, and the Kallithea. Each of these municipalities has an elected district council and a directly elected mayor.

Athens Municipality

The modern city of Athens consists of what was once a conglomeration of distinct towns and villages that gradually expanded and merged into a single large metropolis; most of this expansion occurred during the second half of the 20th century. The Greater Athens area is now divided into 55 municipalities, the largest of which is the Municipality of Athens or Dimos Athinaion, with a population of 745,514 people.

Dora Bakoyanni, of the conservative New Democracy (Greece) party, was Mayor of Athens from 1 January 2003 until 15 February 2006, when she joined the Greek cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs. During her tenure, she had been the 76th Mayor of Athens, and the first female ever to hold that post in the city's history; later replaced by Theodoros Behrakis. The next municipal elections took place in October 2006, at which point Nikitas Kaklamanis took over as the city's mayor.

The Municipality of Athens is divided into seven municipal districts , or demotika diamerismata. The 7-district division, is mainly used for administrative purposes. For Athenians the most popular way of dividing the city proper is through its neighbourhoods (usually referred to as areas in English), each with its own distinct history and characteristics. Those include Pangrati, Ambelokipi, Athens, Exarcheia, Ano Patissia, Kato Patissia, Ilissia, Ano and Kato Petralona, Mets, Koukaki and Kypseli, the world's second most densely populated urban area. For a traveller unfamiliar with Athens, familiarity with the contours of these neighbourhoods can often be particularly useful in both exploring and understanding the city.

Demographics

The municipality of Athens has an official population of 745,514 with a metropolitan population of 3.8 million (population including the suburbs). The actual population, however, is believed to be higher, because during census-taking (carried out once every 10 years) some Athenian residents travel back to their birthplaces, and register as local citizens there. Ta Nea onLine - Retrieved on 10 February 2007 It is estimated that the population of Athens is actually around 5 million people. Also unaccounted for is an undefined number of unregistered immigrants originating mainly from Albania and other Eastern European countries.

The ancient site of the city is centered on the rocky hill of the acropolis. In ancient times the port of Piraeus was a separate city, but it has now been absorbed into greater Athens. The rapid expansion of the city initiated in the 1950s and 1960s continues today, because of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation. Greek Tourist Organizer - Retrieved on 6 January 2007 The expansion is now particularly toward the East and North East (a tendency greatly related to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and the Attiki Odos, the freeway that cuts across Attica). By this process Athens has engulfed many former suburbs and villages in Attica, and continues to do so.Throughout its long history, Athens has experienced many different population levels. The table below shows the historical population of Athens in recent times.

{]) || 718,000 || - || -|-| 1971 || 867,023 || - || -|-| 1981 || 885,737 || - || -|-| 1991 || 772,072 || - || 3,444,358|-| 2001 || 745,514 || 3,130,841 || 3,761,810|}

Culture Archaeological hub Even though most Athenians are unaware of the fact, the city is one of the world's main centres of archaeology. Apart from national institutions, like Athens University, the Archaeological Society of Athens, several archaeological Museums (including the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, the Epigraphic Museum, the Byzantine Museum, as well as museums at the ancient Ancient Agora of Athens, Acropolis Museum, and Kerameikos), the city is also home to the Demokritos laboratory for Archaeometry as well as several regional and national archaeological authorities that form part of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Additionally, Athens hosts 17 List of Foreign Archaeological Institutes in Greece which promote and facilitate research by scholars from their respective home countries. As a result, Athens has more than a dozen archaeological libraries and three specialised archaeological laboratories, and is the venue of several hundred specialised lectures, conferences and seminars, as well as dozens of archaeological exhibitions, per year. At any given time, Athens is the (temporary) home to hundreds of junior and senior international scholars and researchers in all disciplines of archaeology.

Tourism Athens has been a popular tourist destination for travellers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the infrastructure and social amenities of Athens have been radically improved, in part due to the city's successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the European Union, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, the massive expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway. Home to a vast number of 5 and 4 star hotels, the city is currently the 6th most visited capital.

Sports {| class="wikitable"|-!Club!Sport!Founded!League!Venue|-|Panathinaikos|-|[Olympiacos|[Karaiskakis Stadium|[Football (soccer)|1924|Super League Greece|Athens Olympic Stadium|Football|1890|Super League Greece|[Nea Smyrni Stadium|Football|1950|Super League Greece|[Peristeri Stadium|Football|1930|B Ethniki|[Egaleo Stadium|[Basketball|Athens Olympic Stadium|-|[Olympiacos BC|Basketball|1925|A1 Ethniki|Peace and Friendship Stadium|Basketball|1924|A1 Ethniki|[Galatsi Center|Basketball|1890|A1 Ethniki|[Helliniko Arena|Basketball|1970|A1 Ethniki|[Maroussi Arena|[Baseball|[Helliniko Baseball Center|Baseball|1990|National Baseball League|Helliniko Baseball Center|-|[Athinaikos|1927|[National Handball League|[Rugby union|1990|National Rugby League (Greece)|Athens Olympic Stadium|-|Starbucks Rugby, [Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, all multisport clubs. A host of other local clubs are also active in the areas, some listed above. Beach volleyball and windsurfing are both very popular in broader Attica, and nearby beaches are popular with surfing, who have created their own subculture.

Athens has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games: in 1896 Summer Olympics and in 2004. The 2004 Summer Olympics inspired the development of the Athens Olympic Stadium, which has gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful in the world. The city has also hosted the UEFA Champions League final twice, in 1994 and in 2007. Other sports venues include the Karaiskaki Stadium, a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex that also plays host to concerts and awards ceremonies, such as the Arions.

The Athens area encompasses a variety of terrain, notably hills and mountains rising around the city, and the capital is the only major city in Europe to be bisected by a mountain range. Four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries, and thousands of miles of trails crisscross the city and neighbouring areas, providing exercise and wilderness access on hiking, Mountain biking, or horse. Beyond Athens and across the county a great variety of outdoor activities are available and popular, including skiing, rock climbing, hang gliding, and windsurfing. Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Athens Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

Urban Landscape Architecture .

Athens is a melting pot of many different architectural styles, ranging from Greco-Roman, Neo-Classical, to modern. Many of the most prominent buildings of the city are either Greco-Roman or neo-classical in style. Some of the neo-classical buildings to be found are public buildings erected during the mid-nineteenth century under the guidance of Theophil Freiherr von Hansen:



Athenian Neighbourhoods Athens is home to 148 theatrical stages, more than any other European city, including the famous ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, home to the Athens Festival, which runs from May to October each year.http://www.urbanaudit.orghttp://www.hellenicfestival.gr/site/index_en.htm In addition to a large number of multiplexes, Athens plays host to a variety of romantic, open air garden cinemas. The city also supports a vast number of music venues, including the Athens Concert Hall known as the "Megaron Moussikis" which attracts world-famous artists all year round Megaron Events Chart. The relatively recent and rapid redevelopment of many areas in central Athens has brought the city center back into the limelight.

Omonia , located in the heart of the city, is regarded as the transportation center of Athens.

Omonia Square () is the oldest square in Athens. It is surrounded by hotels and fast food outlets, and contains a train station used by the Athens Metro and the Ilektrikos, appropriately named Omonoia Station. The square often becomes the focus for celebration of sporting victories, as seen after the country's winning of the Euro 2004 and the Eurobasket 2005 tournaments.

Psirri and Gazi The reviving Psiri (Greek language: Ψυρρή) neighbourhood - aka Athens's "meat packing district" - is dotted with renovated former mansions and artists' spaces and small gallery areas . A number of its renovated buildings also now host a wide variety of fashionable bars, making it a hotspot for the city in the last decade, while a number of live music restaurants known as "rebetadika", after Rebetiko, a unique form of music that blossomed in Syros and Athens from the 1920s until the 1960s are also to be found. Rebetiko is admired by many, and as a result rebetadika are often crammed with people of all ages who will sing, dance and drink till dawn. The Gazi (Greek language: Γκάζι) area, one of the latest in full redevelopment, is located around a historic gas factory, now converted into the Technopolis cultural multiplex, and also includes artists' areas, a number of small clubs, bars and restaurants, as well as Athens' nascent "Gay Village". The metro's system recent expansion to the western suburbs of the city brought easier access to the area since spring 2007 as the blue line now stops at Gazi (Kerameikos station).

Syntagma Hotel in Syntagma Square.

Syntagma Square, (Greek language: Σύνταγμα), is the capital's central square, lying adjacent to Parliament and the city's most noted hotels. Ermou Street, an approximately 1 km-long pedestrian road connecting Syntagma Square to Monastiraki, has traditionally been a consumer paradise for both Athenians and tourists. Complete with fashion shops and shopping centers promoting most international brands, it now finds itself in the top 5 most expensive shopping streets in Europe, and the tenth most expensive retail street in the world.http://www.cushwake.com/cwglobal/jsp/newsDetail.jsp?repId=c7800055p&LanId=EN&LocId=GLOBAL Nearby, the renovated Army Fund building in Panepistimiou Street includes the "Attica" department store and several upmarket designer stores.

Plaka, Monastiraki, and Thission Plaka, (Greek language: Πλάκα), lying just beneath the Acropolis, is famous for its plentiful neoclassical architecture, making up one of the most scenic districts of the city. It remains a traditionally prime tourist destination with a number of picturesque tavernas and live performances. Nearby Monastiraki (Greek language: Μοναστηράκι), for its part, is well-known for its string of small shops and markets, as well as its crowded flea market and tavernas specialising in souvlaki. Another district notably famous for its student-crammed, stylish cafés is Theseum or Thission (Greek language: Θησείο), lying just west of Monastiraki. Thission is home to the remarkable ancient Temple of Hephaestus, standing atop a small hill.

Kolonaki district.

The Kolonaki (Greek language: Κολωνάκι) area, at the base of Lycabettus, is full of boutiques catering to well-heeled customers by day, and bars and more fashionable restaurants by night, but at other points also a wide range of art galleries and museums. This is often regarded as one of the more prestigious areas of the capital.

Exarcheia Exarcheia (Greek language: Εξάρχεια), located north of Kolonaki, has a mixed reputation as the recent or current location of the city's anarchist and drug scenes and as a culturally active student quarter with many cafés, bars and bookshops. Exarcheia is home to the National Technical University of Athens and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens; it also contains numerous important buildings of several 20th-century styles: Neoclassicism, Art Deco and Modern architecture (including Bauhaus influences).

Suburbs The Athens Metropolitan Area consists of 73 densely populated municipalities, sprawling around the city in virtually all directions. According to their geographic location in relation to the city of Athens, the suburbs are divided into four zones; the northern suburbs (including Ekali, Nea Erythrea, Agios Stefanos, Drosia, Kryoneri, Kifissia, Maroussi, Pefki, Lykovrisi, Heraklio, Vrilissia, Melissia, Pendeli, Halandri, Psychiko and Filothei); the southern suburbs, (including Palaio Faliro, Elliniko, Glyfada, Alimos, Voula and the southernmost suburb of Vouliagmeni); the eastern suburbs, (including Zografou, Vyronas, Kaisariani, Cholargos, Papagou and Aghia Paraskevi; and the western suburbs (including Peristeri, Ilion, Egaleo, Petroupoli and Nikaia, Attica). The northern and most of the southern suburbs are particularly affluent districts, inhabited primarily by middle-to-high and high income groups. The western suburbs are primarily resided in by middle income earners, with some areas resided in by middle-to-low income groups and still others by middle-to-high earners; while the eastern suburbs are primarily inhabited by middle and middle-to-high income groups.

The Athens city coastline, extending from the major commercial port of Piraeus to the southernmost suburb of Varkiza for some , is also connected to the city centre by a tram (which, although modern, can be slow during rush hour), and is punctuated by a string of popular restaurants, cafes, vibrant music venues and modern sports facilities. The area is particularly packed with fashionable bars and nightclubs, that are literally crowded by the city's youth on a daily basis. Most of all during the summer months, the elegant coastal suburbs of Glyfada, Voula and Vouliagmeni host countless such meeting-points, continuing the length of Poseidonos Avenue and Alkyonidon Avenue.

was the site of the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final.

In the winter months, the focus of the city's nightlife moves up into the city centre, in Piraeus as well as across the northern suburbs. In addition, "Bournazi", at the western suburb of Peristeri, has also gained a reputation for its intense nightlife, having turned itself into a hotspot principally for residents of the western Athenian suburbs. In the northern districts, the attractive suburb of Kifissia again hosts a vast number of fashionable restaurants, bars and cafés.

The Mall Athens is a massive mall located in the northern suburb of Maroussi, providing an array of outlets. Nearby, the entirely new attraction of the massively upgraded main Athens Olympic Sports Complex (known by its Greek acronym OAKA) dominates the skyline. The whole area has been redeveloped according to a design by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, with steel arches, landscaped gardens, fountains, futuristic glass, and a landmark new blue glass roof which was added to the main stadium. A second Olympic complex, next to the sea at the beach of Kallithea (Faliron), also features modern stadia, shops and an elevated esplanade. Work is underway to transform the grounds of the old Athens Airport - named Ellinikon International Airport - in the southern suburbs, into one of the largest landscaped parks in Europe, to be named the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park.

.

The major waste management efforts undertaken in the last decade (especially the plant built on the small island of Psytalia) have improved water quality in the Saronic Gulf, and the coastal waters of Athens are now accessible again to swimmers. Many of the southern suburbs (such as Alimos, Palaio Faliro, Elliniko, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza) host a number of sandy beaches, most of which are operated by the Greek National Tourism Organisation and require an entrance fee. Fees are not excessive in most cases, and include a number of related conveniences such as parking facilities, cocktail drinks and umbrellas.

The city is surrounded by four mountains; (Parnitha and Penteli accessible to the north, Hemmettus to the southeast, and Egaleo to the west). Mount Parnitha, in particular, is the tallest of the city (1,453 m) and has been declared a national park. Tens of well-marked paths, gorges, springs, torrents and caves dot the area, and one may even encounter deer in its dense forest. Hiking and mountain-biking in all four mountains have been and remain popular outdoor activities for many Athenians. Casinos operate on both Mount Parnitha, some from downtown Athens, (accessible by car or cable car) and the nearby town of Loutraki (accessible by car via the Athens - Corinth National Highway, or the suburban railroad).

Landmarks

Large parts of the city centre have been redeveloped under a masterplan called Unification of Archeological Sites of Athens, which has also gathered funding from the EU to help enhance the project.http://www.astynet.gr/index.asp Most strikingly, the landmark Dionysiou Aeropagitou street has been pedestrianised, forming a scenic route. The route starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus (Athens) at Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, continues under the southern slopes of the Acropolis near Plaka, and finishes just beyond the Temple of Hephaestus in Theseum. The route in its entirety provides visitors with views of the Parthenon and the ancient Agora of Athens (the meeting point of ancient Athenians), away from the busy city centre.

(upper right) and the Arch of Hadrian (lower left) from the Acropolis of Athens.







, located in Syntagma Square.





Transportation The Athens Mass Transit System consists of a large bus fleet, a trolleybus fleet that mainly serves the downtown area, the city's Metro, a tram line connecting the southern suburbs to the city center,http://linuxweb.internet.gr/tramsa/html/gr/index.php and the Athens Suburban Railway service.http://www.proastiakos.gr The public transportation system is occasionally disrupted by the strike action of its public employees.

Attiko Metro Metro station.

The Athens Metro is more commonly known in Greece as the Attiko Metro (). While its main purpose is transport, it also houses Greek artifacts found during construction of the subway. The Athens Metro supports an operating staff of 387 and runs two of the three metro lines; its two lines (red and blue) were constructed largely during the 1990s, and the initial sections opened in January 2000, and the lines run entirely underground. The metro network operates a fleet of 42 trains consisting of 252 cars, with a daily occupancy of 550,000 passengers. The Blue Line runs from the central Monastiraki district to Doukissis Plakentias avenue in the eastern suburb of Halandri, covering a distance of , then ascending to ground level and reaching Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, using the Suburban Railway infrastructure and extending its distance to 35 km. The Red Line, in counterpart, runs from Aghios Antonios to Aghios Dimitrios and covers a distance of 11.6 km. Extensions to both these lines are under construction, most notably westwards to Egaleo, southwards to the Old Hellinikon Airport East Terminal (the future Metropolitan Park), and eastward toward the easternmost suburb of Aghia Paraskevi.

Electric railway (ISAP) in central Athens.

The third line, not run by the Athens Metro, is the ISAP (), the Electric Railway Company. This is the Green line of the Athens Metro as shown on the adjacent map, and unlike the red and blue routes running entirely underground, ISAP runs either above-ground or below-ground at different sections of its journey. This same operation runs the original metro line from Piraeus to Kifisia; it serves 22 stations, with a network length of , an operating staff of 730 and a fleet of 44 trains and 243 cars, and a daily occupancy rate of 600,000 passengers. The historic Green Line, a 25 km-long and 24-station line which forms the oldest and for the most part runs at ground level, connects the port of Piraeus to the northern suburb of Kifissia, and is set to be extended to Agios Stefanos, a suburb located to the north of the city centre, reaching to 36 km.

Suburban rail (Proastiakos) The Proastiakos connects Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport to the city of Corinth, west of Athens, via the central Larissa train station, and is sometimes considered the fourth line of the Athens Metro. The metro network, Suburban Rail not included, currently extends to a length of , expected to stretch to 124 km (72 stations) by 2009. The Proastiakos will be extended to Aigio (180 km west of Athens), and Chalkida by the end of 2007.

The urban and suburban railway system is managed by three different companies; namely ISAP,http://www.isap.gr Attiko Metro (lines 2 & 3) and Proastiakós (line 4).

Buses

The service operated under Ethel () Thermal Bus Company is the main operator of buses in Athens. It consists of a network of 300 bus lines which span the entire Attica Basin, with an operating staff of 5,327, and a fleet of 1,839 buses. Of those 1,839 buses 295 run on natural gas, making up the largest fleet of natural gas-run buses in Europe.

Besides being served by a fleet of natural-gas and normal buses, the Athens metropolitan area is also serviced by trolley bus, or ILPAP, as the service is known in Athens (). The Electric Buses of the Athens and Pireaus Region (ILPAP) consists of 22 lines and an operating staff of 1,137, and the network operates a fleet of 366 trolley buses able to run on diesel in case of power failure.

Tram line The tram operator has a fleet of 42 trams which serve 47 stations, employ 345 people with an average daily occupancy of 80,000 passengers. This network runs from Syntagma Square to the southwestern suburb of Palaio Faliro, where the line splits in two branches; the first runs along the Athens coastline toward the southern suburb of Glyfada, while the other heads toward the Piraeus district of Neo Faliro. Both the Syntagma Square - Palaio Faliro - Neo Faliro and the Syntagma - Glyfada lines opened on 19 July, 2004, with further extensions planned towards the major commercial port of Piraeus, and the southernmost suburb of Vouliagmeni.

Taxis There is a plentiful supply of taxicab in Athens. They are generally cheap, and during rush hour it is often considered normal to flag down a taxi when not more than one or two other customers are already in (although, officially, this is forbidden); convention dictates that if the second passenger happens to heading in a similar direction and the original passenger has no complaints (seldom if ever is this an issue), he/she joins the journey, and both passengers give the fare as they would if travelling alone.

Athens International Airport , only days before its opening in 2001. (European Airport of the year 2004.)

Athens is now served by the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (AIA) located near the town of Spata, in the eastern Messoghia plain, some east of Athens. Following its completion the airport was awarded the "European Airport of the Year 2004" Award. Intended as an expandable hub for Greek air travel, it was constructed in a record 51 months costing 2.2 billion Euros, and employing a staff of 14,000. An express bus service is provided, connecting the airport to the metro system, and 2 express bus services connect the airport to the port at Piraeus and the city centre respectively. Eleftherios Venizelos accommodates 65 landings and take-offs per hour, with its 24 passenger boarding bridges, 144 check-in counters and broader main terminal, and a commercial area of which includes cafes and duty-free shops. In 2006, the Airport handled 15,079,662 passengers, an increase of 5.6% over the previous year of 2005. Of those 15,079,662 passengers, 5,468,574 passed through the airport for domestic flights, and 9,611,088 passengers travelled through for international flights. Beyond the dimensions of its passenger capacity, AIA handled 190,872 total flights in 2006, or approximately 523 flights per day.

Motorways and railways near the Athens International Airport.

Athens is also the hub of the country's National Railway System. Ferries departing from the port of Piraeus connect the city to the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, westbound toward Elefsina. There are two main highways both heading westward, towards the city of Patras in Peloponessus (Greece Interstate 8A, E94) and, to the north, toward Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki (Greece Interstate 1, E75). In 2001-2004 a ring road toll-motorway (Attiki Odos) was gradually completed, extending from the western industrial suburb of Eleusis all the way to the airport, after encircling the city from the north. The Ymittos Periphery Motorway is a separate section of Attiki Odos connecting the eastern suburb of Kaisariani to the northeastern town of Glyka Nera; this is where it meets the main part of the ring road. The span of the Attiki Odos in all is around 70 km.

Olympic Games 1896 Summer Olympics

1896 brought forth the revival of the modern Olympic Games, by Frenchmen Pierre de Coubertin. Thanks to his efforts, Athens was awarded the first modern Olympic Games. In 1896, the city had an approximate population of 123,000 and the event helped boost the city's international profile. Of the venues used for these Olympics, the Kallimarmaro Stadium, and Zappeion were most crucial. It was to be more than 100 years before the city would restage the event.

1906 Summer Olympics The 1906 Summer Olympics, or the 1906 Intercalated game {{Infobox Greek Dimos|name = Athens|name_local = Αθήνα|image_skyline = Acropolis from south-west.jpg|caption_skyline = Acropolis of Athens|prefec = [Athens Prefecture|districts = 7|mayor = Nikitas Kaklamanis|since = January 1, 2007|elevation_min = 70|elevation_max = 338|population_as_of = 2001|population = 745514|area = 38.964|population_metro = 3761810|area_metro = 411.717|postal_code = 10x xx, 11x xx, 120 xx|area_code = 21|licence = Yxx, Zxx, Ixx (excluding INx)|website = www.cityofathens.gr-->

Athens, the [capital and largest city in Greece, dominates the Attica periphery: as one of the world's oldest cities, its recorded history spans at least 3,000 years.

Today the Greek capital, Europe's 8th largest conurbation,Larger Urban Zones (LUZ) in the European Union is rapidly becoming a leading business centre in the European Union. This bustling and cosmopolitan metropolis with an urban population of 3.3 million and a metropolitan population of about 3.8 million people is central to economic, financial, industrial, political and cultural life in Greece. The city proper has a land area of , while the urban agglomeration of Athens spans . Hellenic Interior Ministry - Accessed on 6 January 2007

Ancient Athens was a powerful city-state. A center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum, Athens was also the birthplace of Socrates, Pericles, Sophocles and its many other prominent philosophers, writers and politicians of the ancient world. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western Civilization, Athens Info Guide: History of Athens - Accessed on 26 January 2007 and the birthplace of democracy, BBC History on Greek Democracy - Accessed on 26 January 2007 largely due to the impact of its cultural and political achievements during the 5th and 4th centuries BC on the rest of the then known European continent. Encarta: Ancient Greece - Retrieved on 26 January 2007

The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, portrayed through a number of ancient monuments and artworks; the most famous of all the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, standing as an epic landmark of western civilization. The city also retains a vast variety of Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire monuments, as well as a small number of remaining Ottoman monuments projecting the city's long history across the centuries. Landmarks of the modern era are also present, dating back to 1830 (the establishment of the independent Greek state), and taking in the Greek Parliament (19th century) and the Athens Trilogy (Library, University, and Academy).

Athens was the host city of the 1896 Summer Olympics in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics, with great success.

Origin of the name , the patron goddess of Athens.

In ancient Greek, the name of Athens was International Phonetic Alphabet , related tο International Phonetic Alphabet and its dialectal variant International Phonetic Alphabet , the Attic Greek and Ionic Greek names respectively of the goddess Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom. The city's name may have been in the plural, like those of (Thebes, Greece) and (Mycenae), because it consisted of several parts. In the 19th century, was formally re-adopted as the city's name. Since the official abandonment of Katharevousa Greek in the 1970s, however, the popular form (Athína) has become the city's official name, though the plural may be kept for several purposes in literature. Note that the article is in general use as for all names in Greek, hence its presence here.

History coin, 5th century BC. British Museum.

The history of Athens is one of the longest of any city in, Europe or the world; it has been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. Athens became the leading city of ancient Greece in the first millennium BC, with its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laying the foundations of Western civilization. During the Middle Ages, the city experienced decline and then recovery under the Byzantine Empire, and was relatively prosperous during the Crusades, benefiting from Italian trade; after a long period of decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, Athens re-emerged in the 19th century as the capital of the independent Greek state, and in 1896 hosted the first modern Olympic Games. In the 1920s a number of refugees, expelled from Asia Minor after the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), swelled Athens' population; nevertheless it was most particularly following the Second World War, and from the 1950s and 1960s, that the population of the city exploded, and Athens experienced a gradual expansion in all directions. In the 1980s it became evident that smog from factories and an ever increasing fleet of automobiles, as well as a lack of adequate free space due to overcongestion, had evolved into the city's most important challenges. A series of anti-pollution measures taken by the city's authorities in the 1990s, combined with a substantial improvement of the city's infrastructure (including the Attiki Odos ring road, the dramatic expansion of the Athens Metro, and the brand new Athens International Airport), alleviated pollution considerably and transformed Athens into a much more functional city.

Geography rising in central Athens.

Athens sprawls across the central plain of Attica, often referred to as the Attica Basin which is bound by Mount Aegaleo in the west, Mount Parnitha in the north, Mount Penteli in the northeast, Mount Hymettus in the east, and the Saronic Gulf in the southwest. The capital has expanded to cover the entire plain, making future growth difficult. The geomorphology of Athens causes the so-called temperature inversion phenomenon, and along with the failure of the Greek Government to control industrial pollution is responsible for the air pollution problems the city has recently faced. (Los Angeles, California and Mexico City also suffer with similar geomorphology inversion problems). The pollution of Athens was at one point so destructive, that according to the then Greek Ministry of Culture (Greece), Constantine Trypanis, the carved details on the five caryatids of the Erechtheum have seriously degenerated, while the face of the horseman on the Parthenon's west side is all but obliterated. A series of strict measures then taken by the authorities of the city throughout the 1990s resulted in a dramatic improvement of air quality; the appearance of smog (or nefos as the Athenians used to call it) has become an increasingly rare phenomenon.

Climate Athens is located at a transition point between the Mediterranean and the Alpine climatic zones. The city enjoys a typical Mediterranean climate, with the greatest amounts of Precipitation (meteorology) mainly occurring from mid-October to mid-April; any precipitation is sparse during summer, and falls generally in the form of showers and/or thunderstorms. Due to its location in a strong rain shadow, however, the Athenian climate is very dry compared with most of mediterranean Europe. The mountainous northern suburbs, for their part, experience a somewhat differentiated climate, with generally lower temperatures and more substantial snowfalls in winter. Fog is highly unusual in the city centre, but is more frequent to the east, behind the Hymettus mountain range.



Snowfalls occur every few years, though these do not normally lead to significant, if any, disruption. Nonetheless, the city has experienced its share of snow, not least in the past decade; during the blizzards of March 1987, February 1992, January 2002, February 2004 and January 2006, snow literally blanketed parts of the metropolitan area.

Spring and fall (autumn) are considered ideal seasons for sightseeing and all kinds of outdoor activities. Summers can be particularly hot and at times prone to smog and pollution related conditions (however, much less so than in the past). The average summer daytime maximum temperature is 90 °F (32 °C), and heatwaves are relatively common, occurring generally during the months of July and/or August, when hot air masses sweep across Greece from the south or southwest. On such days only temperature maxima soar over 100 °F (38 °C).

The all-time high temperatures for the metropolitan area of Athens of and were recorded at the Tatoi and Elefsina suburbs on July 10 1977 (HNMS-http://records.e-kairos.com/resultsmax.php), and are also Greece's all-time high temperatures. The respective low-temperature record is -10.4 °C (13.3 °F), recorded at the Votanikos area, close to the city centre. During the February 2004 blizzard (one of the worst snowstorms ever to hit the city), temperatures plummeted to at the National Technical University of Athens Campus, and at the meteorological station of the National Observatory of Athens, in Penteli.

{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%;border:0px;text-align:center;line-height:120%;"! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080" height="17" |Month! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jan! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Feb! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Mar! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Apr! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | May! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jun! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Jul! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Aug! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Sep! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Oct! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Nov! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Dec! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" | Year|-! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" |Avg high °C (°F)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color:#000000;" | 12.5 (54.5)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color:#000000;" | 13.5 (56.3)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color:#000000;" | 15.7 (60.3)| style="background: #FFFF99; color:#000000;" | 20.2 (68.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 26.0 (78.8)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 31.1 (88.0)| style="background: #FF8001; color:#000000;" | 33.5 (92.3)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 33.2 (91.8)| style="background: #FF8000; color:#000000;" | 29.2 (84.6)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 23.3 (73.9)| style="background: #FFFF99; color:#000000;" | 18.4 (64.6)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color:#000000;" | 14.1 (57.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color:#000000;" | 22.6 (72.7)|-! style="background: #99CCCC; color:#000080;" height="16;" |Avg low °C (°F)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 5.2 (41.4)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 5.4 (41.7)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 6.7 (44.1)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color: black;" | 9.6 (49.3)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 13.9 (57.0)| style="background: #FFFF99; color: black;" | 18.2 (64.8)| style="background: #FFCC66; color: black;" | 20.8 (69.4)| style="background: #FFCC66; color: black;" | 20.7 (69.3)| style="background: #FFFF99; color: black;" | 17.3 (63.1)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 13.4 (56.1)| style="background: #DDDDDD; color: black;" | 9.8 (49.6)| style="background: #FFFFFF; color: black;" | 6.8 (44.2)| style="background: #FFFFCC; color: black;" | 12.3 (54.1)|-| colspan="14" style="text-align:center;font-size:90%;"|Source: Hellenic National Meteorological Service |}

Pollution and Environment Air pollution remains to some degree an issue for Athens, particularly on the hottest summer days. Nevertheless, widespread measures taken by the authorities throughout the 1990s have dramatically improved air quality. In late June 2007, the Attica region experienced a number of brush fires, including one that burned a significant portion of a large forested national park in Mount Parnitha - considered critical to maintaining better air in Athens all year round. Damage to the park has led to worries over a stalling in the improvement of air quality in the city.

Athens tap water is safe, and of very good quality. It is comparable to or exceeds the quality of the best US city water systems sourced from higher elevations, and is considered one of the best municipal waters in Europe.

Government

Athens is the capital of Greece, but it is also the capital of the Attica Periphery and the Athens Prefecture. The city has been the capital of Greece since 1834, succeeding Nafplion, the city that was provisional capital during the Greek War of Independence ending in 1832.

Attica Periphery Athens is located within the Attica Peripheries of Greece, which encompasses the most populated region of Greece, with around 3.7 million people. The Attica Periphery itself is split into four prefectures; they include the Athens Prefecture, Piraeus Prefecture, West Attica, and the East Attica. It is, however, one of the smaller peripheries in Greece, with an area of .

Athens Prefecture The Athens Prefecture is the most populous of all the Greek Prefectures, accounting for well over 2.6 million of the 3.7 million in the Attica Periphery. Athens can refer either to the entire metropolitan area, or to the Municipality of Athens. The next largest municipalities of Athens metropolitan area are the Piraeus, the Peristeri, and the Kallithea. Each of these municipalities has an elected district council and a directly elected mayor.

Athens Municipality

The modern city of Athens consists of what was once a conglomeration of distinct towns and villages that gradually expanded and merged into a single large metropolis; most of this expansion occurred during the second half of the 20th century. The Greater Athens area is now divided into 55 municipalities, the largest of which is the Municipality of Athens or Dimos Athinaion, with a population of 745,514 people.

Dora Bakoyanni, of the conservative New Democracy (Greece) party, was Mayor of Athens from 1 January 2003 until 15 February 2006, when she joined the Greek cabinet as Minister of Foreign Affairs. During her tenure, she had been the 76th Mayor of Athens, and the first female ever to hold that post in the city's history; later replaced by Theodoros Behrakis. The next municipal elections took place in October 2006, at which point Nikitas Kaklamanis took over as the city's mayor.

The Municipality of Athens is divided into seven municipal districts , or demotika diamerismata. The 7-district division, is mainly used for administrative purposes. For Athenians the most popular way of dividing the city proper is through its neighbourhoods (usually referred to as areas in English), each with its own distinct history and characteristics. Those include Pangrati, Ambelokipi, Athens, Exarcheia, Ano Patissia, Kato Patissia, Ilissia, Ano and Kato Petralona, Mets, Koukaki and Kypseli, the world's second most densely populated urban area. For a traveller unfamiliar with Athens, familiarity with the contours of these neighbourhoods can often be particularly useful in both exploring and understanding the city.

Demographics

The municipality of Athens has an official population of 745,514 with a metropolitan population of 3.8 million (population including the suburbs). The actual population, however, is believed to be higher, because during census-taking (carried out once every 10 years) some Athenian residents travel back to their birthplaces, and register as local citizens there. Ta Nea onLine - Retrieved on 10 February 2007 It is estimated that the population of Athens is actually around 5 million people. Also unaccounted for is an undefined number of unregistered immigrants originating mainly from Albania and other Eastern European countries.

The ancient site of the city is centered on the rocky hill of the acropolis. In ancient times the port of Piraeus was a separate city, but it has now been absorbed into greater Athens. The rapid expansion of the city initiated in the 1950s and 1960s continues today, because of the transition from an agricultural to an industrial nation. Greek Tourist Organizer - Retrieved on 6 January 2007 The expansion is now particularly toward the East and North East (a tendency greatly related to the new Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and the Attiki Odos, the freeway that cuts across Attica). By this process Athens has engulfed many former suburbs and villages in Attica, and continues to do so.Throughout its long history, Athens has experienced many different population levels. The table below shows the historical population of Athens in recent times.

{]) || 718,000 || - || -|-| 1971 || 867,023 || - || -|-| 1981 || 885,737 || - || -|-| 1991 || 772,072 || - || 3,444,358|-| 2001 || 745,514 || 3,130,841 || 3,761,810|}

Culture Archaeological hub Even though most Athenians are unaware of the fact, the city is one of the world's main centres of archaeology. Apart from national institutions, like Athens University, the Archaeological Society of Athens, several archaeological Museums (including the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art, the Epigraphic Museum, the Byzantine Museum, as well as museums at the ancient Ancient Agora of Athens, Acropolis Museum, and Kerameikos), the city is also home to the Demokritos laboratory for Archaeometry as well as several regional and national archaeological authorities that form part of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture. Additionally, Athens hosts 17 List of Foreign Archaeological Institutes in Greece which promote and facilitate research by scholars from their respective home countries. As a result, Athens has more than a dozen archaeological libraries and three specialised archaeological laboratories, and is the venue of several hundred specialised lectures, conferences and seminars, as well as dozens of archaeological exhibitions, per year. At any given time, Athens is the (temporary) home to hundreds of junior and senior international scholars and researchers in all disciplines of archaeology.

Tourism Athens has been a popular tourist destination for travellers since antiquity. Over the past decade, the infrastructure and social amenities of Athens have been radically improved, in part due to the city's successful bid to stage the 2004 Olympic Games. The Greek Government, aided by the European Union, has funded major infrastructure projects such as the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos Airport, the massive expansion of the Athens Metro system, and the new Attiki Odos Motorway. Home to a vast number of 5 and 4 star hotels, the city is currently the 6th most visited capital.

Sports {| class="wikitable"|-!Club!Sport!Founded!League!Venue|-|Panathinaikos|-|[Olympiacos|[Karaiskakis Stadium|[Football (soccer)|1924|Super League Greece|Athens Olympic Stadium|Football|1890|Super League Greece|[Nea Smyrni Stadium|Football|1950|Super League Greece|[Peristeri Stadium|Football|1930|B Ethniki|[Egaleo Stadium|[Basketball|Athens Olympic Stadium|-|[Olympiacos BC|Basketball|1925|A1 Ethniki|Peace and Friendship Stadium|Basketball|1924|A1 Ethniki|[Galatsi Center|Basketball|1890|A1 Ethniki|[Helliniko Arena|Basketball|1970|A1 Ethniki|[Maroussi Arena|[Baseball|[Helliniko Baseball Center|Baseball|1990|National Baseball League|Helliniko Baseball Center|-|[Athinaikos|1927|[National Handball League|[Rugby union|1990|National Rugby League (Greece)|Athens Olympic Stadium|-|Starbucks Rugby, [Panathinaikos and AEK Athens, all multisport clubs. A host of other local clubs are also active in the areas, some listed above. Beach volleyball and windsurfing are both very popular in broader Attica, and nearby beaches are popular with surfing, who have created their own subculture.

Athens has twice played host to the summer Olympic Games: in 1896 Summer Olympics and in 2004. The 2004 Summer Olympics inspired the development of the Athens Olympic Stadium, which has gained a reputation as one of the most beautiful in the world. The city has also hosted the UEFA Champions League final twice, in 1994 and in 2007. Other sports venues include the Karaiskaki Stadium, a state-of-the-art sports and entertainment complex that also plays host to concerts and awards ceremonies, such as the Arions.

The Athens area encompasses a variety of terrain, notably hills and mountains rising around the city, and the capital is the only major city in Europe to be bisected by a mountain range. Four mountain ranges extend into city boundaries, and thousands of miles of trails crisscross the city and neighbouring areas, providing exercise and wilderness access on hiking, Mountain biking, or horse. Beyond Athens and across the county a great variety of outdoor activities are available and popular, including skiing, rock climbing, hang gliding, and windsurfing. Numerous outdoor clubs serve these sports, including the Athens Chapter of the Sierra Club, which leads over 4,000 outings annually in the area.

Urban Landscape Architecture .

Athens is a melting pot of many different architectural styles, ranging from Greco-Roman, Neo-Classical, to modern. Many of the most prominent buildings of the city are either Greco-Roman or neo-classical in style. Some of the neo-classical buildings to be found are public buildings erected during the mid-nineteenth century under the guidance of Theophil Freiherr von Hansen:



Athenian Neighbourhoods Athens is home to 148 theatrical stages, more than any other European city, including the famous ancient Odeon of Herodes Atticus, home to the Athens Festival, which runs from May to October each year.http://www.urbanaudit.orghttp://www.hellenicfestival.gr/site/index_en.htm In addition to a large number of multiplexes, Athens plays host to a variety of romantic, open air garden cinemas. The city also supports a vast number of music venues, including the Athens Concert Hall known as the "Megaron Moussikis" which attracts world-famous artists all year round Megaron Events Chart. The relatively recent and rapid redevelopment of many areas in central Athens has brought the city center back into the limelight.

Omonia , located in the heart of the city, is regarded as the transportation center of Athens.

Omonia Square () is the oldest square in Athens. It is surrounded by hotels and fast food outlets, and contains a train station used by the Athens Metro and the Ilektrikos, appropriately named Omonoia Station. The square often becomes the focus for celebration of sporting victories, as seen after the country's winning of the Euro 2004 and the Eurobasket 2005 tournaments.

Psirri and Gazi The reviving Psiri (Greek language: Ψυρρή) neighbourhood - aka Athens's "meat packing district" - is dotted with renovated former mansions and artists' spaces and small gallery areas . A number of its renovated buildings also now host a wide variety of fashionable bars, making it a hotspot for the city in the last decade, while a number of live music restaurants known as "rebetadika", after Rebetiko, a unique form of music that blossomed in Syros and Athens from the 1920s until the 1960s are also to be found. Rebetiko is admired by many, and as a result rebetadika are often crammed with people of all ages who will sing, dance and drink till dawn. The Gazi (Greek language: Γκάζι) area, one of the latest in full redevelopment, is located around a historic gas factory, now converted into the Technopolis cultural multiplex, and also includes artists' areas, a number of small clubs, bars and restaurants, as well as Athens' nascent "Gay Village". The metro's system recent expansion to the western suburbs of the city brought easier access to the area since spring 2007 as the blue line now stops at Gazi (Kerameikos station).

Syntagma Hotel in Syntagma Square.

Syntagma Square, (Greek language: Σύνταγμα), is the capital's central square, lying adjacent to Parliament and the city's most noted hotels. Ermou Street, an approximately 1 km-long pedestrian road connecting Syntagma Square to Monastiraki, has traditionally been a consumer paradise for both Athenians and tourists. Complete with fashion shops and shopping centers promoting most international brands, it now finds itself in the top 5 most expensive shopping streets in Europe, and the tenth most expensive retail street in the world.http://www.cushwake.com/cwglobal/jsp/newsDetail.jsp?repId=c7800055p&LanId=EN&LocId=GLOBAL Nearby, the renovated Army Fund building in Panepistimiou Street includes the "Attica" department store and several upmarket designer stores.

Plaka, Monastiraki, and Thission Plaka, (Greek language: Πλάκα), lying just beneath the Acropolis, is famous for its plentiful neoclassical architecture, making up one of the most scenic districts of the city. It remains a traditionally prime tourist destination with a number of picturesque tavernas and live performances. Nearby Monastiraki (Greek language: Μοναστηράκι), for its part, is well-known for its string of small shops and markets, as well as its crowded flea market and tavernas specialising in souvlaki. Another district notably famous for its student-crammed, stylish cafés is Theseum or Thission (Greek language: Θησείο), lying just west of Monastiraki. Thission is home to the remarkable ancient Temple of Hephaestus, standing atop a small hill.

Kolonaki district.

The Kolonaki (Greek language: Κολωνάκι) area, at the base of Lycabettus, is full of boutiques catering to well-heeled customers by day, and bars and more fashionable restaurants by night, but at other points also a wide range of art galleries and museums. This is often regarded as one of the more prestigious areas of the capital.

Exarcheia Exarcheia (Greek language: Εξάρχεια), located north of Kolonaki, has a mixed reputation as the recent or current location of the city's anarchist and drug scenes and as a culturally active student quarter with many cafés, bars and bookshops. Exarcheia is home to the National Technical University of Athens and the National Archaeological Museum of Athens; it also contains numerous important buildings of several 20th-century styles: Neoclassicism, Art Deco and Modern architecture (including Bauhaus influences).

Suburbs The Athens Metropolitan Area consists of 73 densely populated municipalities, sprawling around the city in virtually all directions. According to their geographic location in relation to the city of Athens, the suburbs are divided into four zones; the northern suburbs (including Ekali, Nea Erythrea, Agios Stefanos, Drosia, Kryoneri, Kifissia, Maroussi, Pefki, Lykovrisi, Heraklio, Vrilissia, Melissia, Pendeli, Halandri, Psychiko and Filothei); the southern suburbs, (including Palaio Faliro, Elliniko, Glyfada, Alimos, Voula and the southernmost suburb of Vouliagmeni); the eastern suburbs, (including Zografou, Vyronas, Kaisariani, Cholargos, Papagou and Aghia Paraskevi; and the western suburbs (including Peristeri, Ilion, Egaleo, Petroupoli and Nikaia, Attica). The northern and most of the southern suburbs are particularly affluent districts, inhabited primarily by middle-to-high and high income groups. The western suburbs are primarily resided in by middle income earners, with some areas resided in by middle-to-low income groups and still others by middle-to-high earners; while the eastern suburbs are primarily inhabited by middle and middle-to-high income groups.

The Athens city coastline, extending from the major commercial port of Piraeus to the southernmost suburb of Varkiza for some , is also connected to the city centre by a tram (which, although modern, can be slow during rush hour), and is punctuated by a string of popular restaurants, cafes, vibrant music venues and modern sports facilities. The area is particularly packed with fashionable bars and nightclubs, that are literally crowded by the city's youth on a daily basis. Most of all during the summer months, the elegant coastal suburbs of Glyfada, Voula and Vouliagmeni host countless such meeting-points, continuing the length of Poseidonos Avenue and Alkyonidon Avenue.

was the site of the 2004 Olympic Games and the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final.

In the winter months, the focus of the city's nightlife moves up into the city centre, in Piraeus as well as across the northern suburbs. In addition, "Bournazi", at the western suburb of Peristeri, has also gained a reputation for its intense nightlife, having turned itself into a hotspot principally for residents of the western Athenian suburbs. In the northern districts, the attractive suburb of Kifissia again hosts a vast number of fashionable restaurants, bars and cafés.

The Mall Athens is a massive mall located in the northern suburb of Maroussi, providing an array of outlets. Nearby, the entirely new attraction of the massively upgraded main Athens Olympic Sports Complex (known by its Greek acronym OAKA) dominates the skyline. The whole area has been redeveloped according to a design by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, with steel arches, landscaped gardens, fountains, futuristic glass, and a landmark new blue glass roof which was added to the main stadium. A second Olympic complex, next to the sea at the beach of Kallithea (Faliron), also features modern stadia, shops and an elevated esplanade. Work is underway to transform the grounds of the old Athens Airport - named Ellinikon International Airport - in the southern suburbs, into one of the largest landscaped parks in Europe, to be named the Hellenikon Metropolitan Park.

.

The major waste management efforts undertaken in the last decade (especially the plant built on the small island of Psytalia) have improved water quality in the Saronic Gulf, and the coastal waters of Athens are now accessible again to swimmers. Many of the southern suburbs (such as Alimos, Palaio Faliro, Elliniko, Voula, Vouliagmeni and Varkiza) host a number of sandy beaches, most of which are operated by the Greek National Tourism Organisation and require an entrance fee. Fees are not excessive in most cases, and include a number of related conveniences such as parking facilities, cocktail drinks and umbrellas.

The city is surrounded by four mountains; (Parnitha and Penteli accessible to the north, Hemmettus to the southeast, and Egaleo to the west). Mount Parnitha, in particular, is the tallest of the city (1,453 m) and has been declared a national park. Tens of well-marked paths, gorges, springs, torrents and caves dot the area, and one may even encounter deer in its dense forest. Hiking and mountain-biking in all four mountains have been and remain popular outdoor activities for many Athenians. Casinos operate on both Mount Parnitha, some from downtown Athens, (accessible by car or cable car) and the nearby town of Loutraki (accessible by car via the Athens - Corinth National Highway, or the suburban railroad).

Landmarks

Large parts of the city centre have been redeveloped under a masterplan called Unification of Archeological Sites of Athens, which has also gathered funding from the EU to help enhance the project.http://www.astynet.gr/index.asp Most strikingly, the landmark Dionysiou Aeropagitou street has been pedestrianised, forming a scenic route. The route starts from the Temple of Olympian Zeus (Athens) at Vasilissis Olgas Avenue, continues under the southern slopes of the Acropolis near Plaka, and finishes just beyond the Temple of Hephaestus in Theseum. The route in its entirety provides visitors with views of the Parthenon and the ancient Agora of Athens (the meeting point of ancient Athenians), away from the busy city centre.

(upper right) and the Arch of Hadrian (lower left) from the Acropolis of Athens.







, located in Syntagma Square.





Transportation The Athens Mass Transit System consists of a large bus fleet, a trolleybus fleet that mainly serves the downtown area, the city's Metro, a tram line connecting the southern suburbs to the city center,http://linuxweb.internet.gr/tramsa/html/gr/index.php and the Athens Suburban Railway service.http://www.proastiakos.gr The public transportation system is occasionally disrupted by the strike action of its public employees.

Attiko Metro Metro station.

The Athens Metro is more commonly known in Greece as the Attiko Metro (). While its main purpose is transport, it also houses Greek artifacts found during construction of the subway. The Athens Metro supports an operating staff of 387 and runs two of the three metro lines; its two lines (red and blue) were constructed largely during the 1990s, and the initial sections opened in January 2000, and the lines run entirely underground. The metro network operates a fleet of 42 trains consisting of 252 cars, with a daily occupancy of 550,000 passengers. The Blue Line runs from the central Monastiraki district to Doukissis Plakentias avenue in the eastern suburb of Halandri, covering a distance of , then ascending to ground level and reaching Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport, using the Suburban Railway infrastructure and extending its distance to 35 km. The Red Line, in counterpart, runs from Aghios Antonios to Aghios Dimitrios and covers a distance of 11.6 km. Extensions to both these lines are under construction, most notably westwards to Egaleo, southwards to the Old Hellinikon Airport East Terminal (the future Metropolitan Park), and eastward toward the easternmost suburb of Aghia Paraskevi.

Electric railway (ISAP) in central Athens.

The third line, not run by the Athens Metro, is the ISAP (), the Electric Railway Company. This is the Green line of the Athens Metro as shown on the adjacent map, and unlike the red and blue routes running entirely underground, ISAP runs either above-ground or below-ground at different sections of its journey. This same operation runs the original metro line from Piraeus to Kifisia; it serves 22 stations, with a network length of , an operating staff of 730 and a fleet of 44 trains and 243 cars, and a daily occupancy rate of 600,000 passengers. The historic Green Line, a 25 km-long and 24-station line which forms the oldest and for the most part runs at ground level, connects the port of Piraeus to the northern suburb of Kifissia, and is set to be extended to Agios Stefanos, a suburb located to the north of the city centre, reaching to 36 km.

Suburban rail (Proastiakos) The Proastiakos connects Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport to the city of Corinth, west of Athens, via the central Larissa train station, and is sometimes considered the fourth line of the Athens Metro. The metro network, Suburban Rail not included, currently extends to a length of , expected to stretch to 124 km (72 stations) by 2009. The Proastiakos will be extended to Aigio (180 km west of Athens), and Chalkida by the end of 2007.

The urban and suburban railway system is managed by three different companies; namely ISAP,http://www.isap.gr Attiko Metro (lines 2 & 3) and Proastiakós (line 4).

Buses

The service operated under Ethel () Thermal Bus Company is the main operator of buses in Athens. It consists of a network of 300 bus lines which span the entire Attica Basin, with an operating staff of 5,327, and a fleet of 1,839 buses. Of those 1,839 buses 295 run on natural gas, making up the largest fleet of natural gas-run buses in Europe.

Besides being served by a fleet of natural-gas and normal buses, the Athens metropolitan area is also serviced by trolley bus, or ILPAP, as the service is known in Athens (). The Electric Buses of the Athens and Pireaus Region (ILPAP) consists of 22 lines and an operating staff of 1,137, and the network operates a fleet of 366 trolley buses able to run on diesel in case of power failure.

Tram line The tram operator has a fleet of 42 trams which serve 47 stations, employ 345 people with an average daily occupancy of 80,000 passengers. This network runs from Syntagma Square to the southwestern suburb of Palaio Faliro, where the line splits in two branches; the first runs along the Athens coastline toward the southern suburb of Glyfada, while the other heads toward the Piraeus district of Neo Faliro. Both the Syntagma Square - Palaio Faliro - Neo Faliro and the Syntagma - Glyfada lines opened on 19 July, 2004, with further extensions planned towards the major commercial port of Piraeus, and the southernmost suburb of Vouliagmeni.

Taxis There is a plentiful supply of taxicab in Athens. They are generally cheap, and during rush hour it is often considered normal to flag down a taxi when not more than one or two other customers are already in (although, officially, this is forbidden); convention dictates that if the second passenger happens to heading in a similar direction and the original passenger has no complaints (seldom if ever is this an issue), he/she joins the journey, and both passengers give the fare as they would if travelling alone.

Athens International Airport , only days before its opening in 2001. (European Airport of the year 2004.)

Athens is now served by the state-of-the-art Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport (AIA) located near the town of Spata, in the eastern Messoghia plain, some east of Athens. Following its completion the airport was awarded the "European Airport of the Year 2004" Award. Intended as an expandable hub for Greek air travel, it was constructed in a record 51 months costing 2.2 billion Euros, and employing a staff of 14,000. An express bus service is provided, connecting the airport to the metro system, and 2 express bus services connect the airport to the port at Piraeus and the city centre respectively. Eleftherios Venizelos accommodates 65 landings and take-offs per hour, with its 24 passenger boarding bridges, 144 check-in counters and broader main terminal, and a commercial area of which includes cafes and duty-free shops. In 2006, the Airport handled 15,079,662 passengers, an increase of 5.6% over the previous year of 2005. Of those 15,079,662 passengers, 5,468,574 passed through the airport for domestic flights, and 9,611,088 passengers travelled through for international flights. Beyond the dimensions of its passenger capacity, AIA handled 190,872 total flights in 2006, or approximately 523 flights per day.

Motorways and railways near the Athens International Airport.

Athens is also the hub of the country's National Railway System. Ferries departing from the port of Piraeus connect the city to the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea, westbound toward Elefsina. There are two main highways both heading westward, towards the city of Patras in Peloponessus (Greece Interstate 8A, E94) and, to the north, toward Greece's second largest city, Thessaloniki (Greece Interstate 1, E75). In 2001-2004 a ring road toll-motorway (Attiki Odos) was gradually completed, extending from the western industrial suburb of Eleusis all the way to the airport, after encircling the city from the north. The Ymittos Periphery Motorway is a separate section of Attiki Odos connecting the eastern suburb of Kaisariani to the northeastern town of Glyka Nera; this is where it meets the main part of the ring road. The span of the Attiki Odos in all is around 70 km.

Olympic Games 1896 Summer Olympics

1896 brought forth the revival of the modern Olympic Games, by Frenchmen Pierre de Coubertin. Thanks to his efforts, Athens was awarded the first modern Olympic Games. In 1896, the city had an approximate population of 123,000 and the event helped boost the city's international profile. Of the venues used for these Olympics, the Kallimarmaro Stadium, and Zappeion were most crucial. It was to be more than 100 years before the city would restage the event.

1906 Summer Olympics The 1906 Summer Olympics, or the 1906 Intercalated game

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