The pearl of the Ionian Sea

Greece is the cradle of an ancient civilization that spawned not only the concept of democracy but also many of the ideas from which Western culture took root.

Greek art and architecture still wield a significant influence on modern aesthetics. Greece is also the country of origin of the Olympic Games.

The many attractions of Greece have made it a dream holiday destination for millions around the world, and the country is visited by over 12 million tourists a year.

Zakynthos

The island of Zakynthos, meaning flower of the east in Greek, is famed worldwide not only for its natural beauty but also for the sea turtle Caretta Caretta.

From May to October each year, tourists from European countries and all over the world come to this island to return to nature and get a good rest both physically and mentally.

Named after its founder Arkadian Zakynthos, the island enjoyed its days of glory during the Classical period. Because of its strategic position, it was attacked and captured many times by the Macedonians, the Romans, and the pirates in the Byzantine Age, and was also under the Venetian Occupation.

It was reunited with Greece, along with other Ionian islands, in 1864.

Zakynthos is the birthplace of the famous Greek poet Dionysios Solomos, the writer of "Hymn to Freedom", the national anthem of Greece.

Zakynthos covers an area of 406 sq km and has a coastline of 123 km.

Undoubtedly, the island's greatest attraction lies in its incomparable shores with glistening grayish white or golden sand, quaint fishing villages or popular holiday resorts, isolated coves amid the sparkling sea, forbidding steep cliffs or welcoming gentle beaches in which the greenery reaches the water's edge.

The most notable of the island's many sights is the Blue Grotto, one of the loveliest cave complexes in Greece.

Acropolis Athens

A symbol and repository of the civilizations, myths and religions that flourished in Greece over more than 1,000 years, the Acropolis, the site of four of the greatest masterpieces of classical Greek art - the Parthenon, the Propylaea, the Erechtheum and the Temple of Athena Nike - can be seen to encapsulate the idea of world heritage.

The Acropolis, located on a rocky promontory 156 m above the valley of Ilissos, dominates the city of Athens, covering a surface area of less than 4 sq km.

From the second millennium BC, the Acropolis was a fortress protecting places of worship and royal palaces, some foundations of which were discovered near Erechtheon.

During Pericles' Golden Age, ancient Greek civilization was represented in an ideal way on the Acropolis hill and some of the architectural masterpieces of the period were erected on its ground.

The first remains of habitation on the Acropolis date from the Neolithic period. Over the centuries, the rocky hill was continuously used either as a place of worship or a residential area or both.

(China Daily 10/18/2007 page19)