NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN
UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
PHYSICS DEPARTMENT
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The city of Athens Athens is an ideal year-round city destination with comfortable and favorable climate conditions for travel and sightseeing. Rainfall is minimal (estimated at just 40 cm or 16 inches per year) and Helios, the sun god in Greek mythology, smiles upon its streets over 300 days a year. The summers (June through August) are dry and hot with temperatures ranging from 78° to 94°F or 20° to 34°C and are recommended for diehard sun worshippers. Seasonal winds, known as meltemi, may accompany some hot days depending on the climatic conditions. September is often considered the ideal month for both urban activities and nearby island day trips with temperatures ranging from 70° to 83°F or 20° to 28°C. In Athens, sunshine and outdoor living is almost always a given no matter what the season of the year is.
The
history
of Athens unfold throughout
the centuries.
It
is the place where Socrates was born, Plato, Aeschylus, Sophocles,
Euripides and many others. It is the place that humanism and democracy
were born.
Athens has
been continuously inhabited for at least 3,000 years. It became the
leading city of
Ancient Greece
in the first millennium BCE. Its cultural achievements during the 5th
century BCE laid the foundations of
western civilization.
During the
Middle Ages,
Athens experienced decline and then a recovery under the
Byzantine Empire.
Athens 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.
The intellectual
light that Athens created will always be alive. Information on the greek culture is also provided by the Hellenic Foundation of Culture, established in 1992 and headquartered in Athens as well as by ODYSSEUS.
Maps More detailed information about the city of Athens can be found here and here.
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