The Fourth Crusade occurred from 1202-1204 by the Crusaders of Western Europe who invaded and captured the city of Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. Originally the crusade was intended to conquer Muslim-controlled Jerusalem through the invasion of Egypt. With the sacking of Constantinople, it left the city damaged beyond repair and led slowly to its demise in 1453 when it was invaded by the Turks. The Latin Empire was then established in the conquered parts of the Byzantine Empire and lasted for a few decades before the Byzantine Greeks reconquered their lands and overthrew the crusader states.

Read More >>

      Atlantis is thought to be a lost city that had a highly advanced civilization. It is one of the greatest mysteries of antiquity and has yet to be solved. Many people have spent years trying to locate the exact location of this city but none have yet to prove it. The exact location of Atlantis is a highly debatable topic. Some believe Atlantis to be located in Greece, Spain, the middle of the Atlantic ocean and some think it to be as far as the Bahamas. The lost city of Atlantis has become a popular culture phenomenon with movies, resorts, books, television shows, music and more have all been written about Atlantis.

Read More >>

      Cleopatra VII is best known for being the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. She was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, a Greek Macedonian family that ruled Egypt after Alexander the Great's death during the Hellenistic period. The family spoke Greek and refused to speak Egyptian, which is why Greek and Egyptian were both used on official court documents such as the infamous Rosetta Stone. However, Cleopatra did embrace the Egyptian culture and represented herself as the reincarnation of the Egyptian goddess, Isis. Cleopatra's reign lasted for 17 years, three years were with her brother along her side, and fourteen as sole ruler. It wasn't until in 30 BC when she committed suicide that Egypt was annexed by the Roman's and became a Roman province.

Read More >>

      Mikis Theodorakis is one of the greatest composers and song writers in Modern Greece. He is most popularly known for his score in the film Zorba the Greek, which has become one of the most popular Greek songs. Theodorakis spent his early years on the Greek countryside becoming familiar with folk music and music of the Greek Orthodox Church and after hearing Beethoven's Ninth Symphony one day he decided to become a composer. It was during WWII where Mikis began his lifelong struggle for freedom.

Read More >>

      Meteora is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece. The monasteries are built on protruding rocks made of natural sandstone that are believed to be 60 million years old. They are located at the northwestern edge of the Plains of Thessaly near the Peneios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. These rocks were shaped by weathering and earthquakes that pushed the seabed upwards creating a high plateau. Herodotus famously wrote in the 5th century BC that the locals believed the plain of Thessaly to once have been a sea, however there was no mention of the rocks in any ancient Greek texts leading some to believe that the pinnacles were formed sometime between a thousand to two-thousand years ago. A theory dismissed by modern geologists.

Read More >>

      The Olympic Games of ancient Greece were a series of athletic competitions held for representatives of various Greek city-states in honour of Zeus. They began in 776 BC in Olympia until they were suppressed in 393 AD by Theodosius I as part of the campaign to impose Christianity as a state religion (that's over 1000 years of competition!). The site of Olympia remained until an earthquake destroyed it in the sixth century AD and all that is left of it is ruins of temples and the stadium. The Games were usually held every four years, or olympiad, as it became to be known. During the Olympics a truce was enacted among the various Greek city-states so that athletes could travel from their countries to the Games in safety. The prizes for the victors were olive wreaths or crowns and lasting glory in their cities.

Read More >>

      The Cycladic Civilization was a civilization that lived in the region of the Cycladic Islands during the Bronze Age. During this time the Minoan civilization was living on the island of Crete and the Helladic civilization (the ancient Greeks) were living on the Greek mainland. The Cycladic people were highly skilled maritime traders, with trade links in Asia Minor, mainland Greece, Crete, North Africa and Europe. The people were also active in fishing, as it was their main source of food. Ruins can be found on almost all the Cycladic islands leaving behind important details of the Cycladic culture.

Read More >>

      Nikos Kazantzakis was arguably the most important and most translated Greek writer and philosopher of the 20th century. He was an influential figure in Greece and it wasn't until the release of the Michael Cacoyannis film Zorba the Greek in 1964 that he became recognized globally. Zorba the Greek was based on Kazantzakis' novel. In 1902 he studied law at the University of Athens and then went to Paris in 1907 to study philosophy. It was there that he full under the influence of Henri Bergson, a major French philosopher. When Kazantzakis returned to Greece he began translating works of philosophy.

Read More >>

      El Greco was one of the greatest painters of the Spanish Renaissance. He was known as "El Greco" (The Greek), a reference to his Greek origin, and signed his paintings with his full birth name in Greek letters, Δομηνικος Θεοτοκοπουλος. He was born in Crete, which was the centre of Post-Byzantine art and also part of the Republic of Venice. El Greco descended from a wealthy family, his father was a merchant and tax collector, and he received his training as an icon painter at a Cretan school, eventually earning the title of Master by the age of 22.

Read More >>

      Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek mathematician and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. He was a great mathematician, mystic and scientist and was labeled as "the most able philosopher" among the Greeks and known as the "father of numbers". What we know of Pythagoras is what has been written about him by his followers, of which he had many. He is most famously known for the Pythagorean Theorem which bears his name. It is a theorem in geometry that states that in a right-angled triangle the square of the hypotenuse (the side opposite the right angle), c, is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, b and a.

Read More >>

      Volcanoes have shaped the Greek landscape for thousands of years, with one of the biggest eruptions occurring on the island of Santorini 3,500 years ago. There are a total of 8 volcanoes in Greece occupying the islands of the Aegean Sea. They are located in Kos, Methana, Milos, Nisyros, Poros, Santorini (has 2) and Yali. The last eruption of any of these volcanoes was in 1950 when the Mea Kameni volcano erupted on the island of Santorini. Most of the volcanic islands have a unique landscape to the island from their volcanoes. Santorini is famous for its caldera cliffs (which is a cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption). Mylos with its bone white beaches that derive its unusual characteristics from volcanic rocks shaped by wind and waves.

Read More >>

      Ancient Greek theatre was the most popular form of entertainment in Ancient Greece. The Greeks helped spread theatre to its many colonies and allies to help promote a common cultural identity, which is why theatres can be found as far as the Middle East and Italy. Theatre reached its height during the 5th Century, most notably in Athens, as this was known as the Golden Age of Greek drama. Many of the plays we know of today originated in Athens and were performed at the theatre of Dionysus. What we know of ancient Greek theatre is what has survived. Up until the Hellenistic period in the late 4th century BC plays were only performed once in honour of Dionysus, therefore what we know of these plays is what has been remembered well enough to have been repeated when the repetition of old tragedies became popular during the Hellenistic period.

Read More >>

      Agamemnon, a character of Greek mythology, was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae and Queen Aerope. He would eventually take to throne of Mycenae (also known as Argos) to become king. It is not certain if Agamemnon was a real person or the product of Homer's book the Iliad, even after claims from Heinrich Schliemann in 1876 that he had discovered his tomb and the 'mask' of Agamemnon (pictured right). The mask was later identified to belong to a previous King of Mycenae a few centuries before Agamemnon would have existed.

Read More >>