Crete's history as well as the inhabitants' personality were affected by the island's mountainous landscape.

Greece has one of the richest varieties of wildlife in Europe, including 116 species of mammals, 18 of amphibians, 59 of reptiles, 240 of birds, and 107 of fishes.

Greece is a leading producer of sea sponges.

Athens is one of the few coastal cities worldwide that is surrounded by mountains. These are Mt. Hymettus, Mt. Penteli, Mt. Parnitha and Mt. Aigaleo.

Greece has historically engaged in wine making. Take for example Dionysus, the son of Zeus, the God of the grape-harvest, winemaking and wine. His face is seen today on the sommelier’s pin which is a symbol of respect to wine’s contribution throughout history.

The species and subspecies of the native plants in Greece are about 6,000, almost as much as 50% of the native plants of Europe!

About 7% of all the marble produced worldwide comes from Greece.

Crete, Greece’s largest island and birthplace of the Minoan Civilisation, is the most southern one, except for the little island of Gavdos!

700 plant species of Greece are endemic, meaning that they may be found only in Greece; approximately 20% of those are aromatic or medicinal plants.

Greece's national drink is ouzo. Ouzo is a dry anise-flavoured aperitif. Cheers, "stin igia mas" in Greek!

An old Greek legend says that when God created the world, he sifted all the soil onto the earth through a strainer. After every country had good soil, he tossed the stones left in the strainer over his shoulder and created Greece.

Greece is the place where democracy was born. But democracy in ancient Athens was significantly different from modern democracies. It was both more participatory and exclusive, and there were no political parties in Athenian democracy.

The very first sprint race of the first Olympic Games in 776 B.C. was won by Coroebus of Elis, a cook!

Did you know that Greece has around 6,000 islands, islets and rocky islets? 2,000 of them are islands and only 107 of them are inhabited!

Olympus (2,917m), the mountain of Gods and Muses is the highest mountain of Greece and the 2nd in the Balkans.

Did you know that Greece is the 4th largest cheese producer worldwide. Greeks eat 28 kg per capita per year. And guess what, mostly feta cheese!

Greek is one of the oldest spoken languages in Europe since it has been spoken for more than 3.000 years.

Did you know that Greece has the biggest EU consumption of olive oil per capita, with around 12 kg per person per year?

Feta, which is made from sheep and goat’s milk, is Greece’s national cheese. It dates back to the Homeric ages, and the average per-capita consumption of feta cheese in Greece is the highest in the world!

Did you know that Greece is the third largest producer of olive oil in the world? Greeks have cultivated olive trees since antiquity. Some of the olive trees that are still producing olives, date back to the thirteenth century.