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 | Greece is one of the oldest nations in the world. Many of you will have learned about the Ancient Greeks at school. Together with the Romans they were responsible for many of the things we now take for granted. |
 But what is Greece like today? Where is it, and who are its neighbours? |
 | The Hellenic Republic of Greece, to give it its full name, is in southern Europe, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Ionian and Aegean Seas. Greece shares its borders with four countries - from the map, can see which ones? |
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© Jonathan Syer/Rex Features |
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 Greece is made up of large chunk of land and chains of islands. If the whole country was glued together it would cover an area about twice the size of Scotland. End to end, Greece's coastline would stretch to 13,676 kilometres - and there's plenty of fish to catch off the coast! |
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 The population of Greece is about one sixth of that of the United Kingdom. If the UK population is about 60 million, what roughly, is the population of Greece?
 Fractions! Now let me see, drop the million for a moment; so 60 divided by six, is ... 10. So the population is about 10 million people!
 That's right Harry, well done! Did you get it right?
Almost half the people in Greece have a job - so roughly, how many people work in Greece?
 That's easy - half of sixty is thirty, so thirty million people work in Greece.
© Simon Scoones/Worldaware |
 Yes, that's right. Nearly five million people work in farming. They produce food for the country, and other products to sell abroad. One famous Greek product grows on trees and is exported all over the world. From the picture can you work out what it is?
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Greece is a member of the European Union, or EU for short. The EU is a bit like a club. Member countries of the EU work together to make common laws and to make it easier to work and trade between each other. There are fifteen member countries today, but soon there will be 25! |
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© Sipa Press/Rex Features |
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 | Can you find out who the new members will be? |
| Greece was one of twelve countries in the EU that changed their currency to the euro in 2002. With only one currency instead of twelve, how might this help people doing business or going on holiday in these different European countries? |
| Three other members of the EU chose not to give up their currencies and join the euro - at least not now. Can you work out the names of these countries from the anagrams? Roll over the words for the answers! |
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I wonder how many of you have been to Greece on your holidays? I flew there once - it was a long way,
| but I enjoyed the sunshine, heat and sandy beaches! |
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| Click on the next page link to see what life was like for the Ancient Greeks! |
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