The area that Ancient Greeks inhabited was much
bigger than what we know these days as Greece. Ancient Greeks also lived around the shores
of the Black Sea, Asia Minor, Cyprus and the Northern Aegean Coast. Ancient Greece lies
centrally in the heart of the Mediterranean, and consisted of lots of bare rocks and tiny
plains. As you came onshore from the sea you were hit almost immediately by mountains.
These mountainous structure covered 80 percent of classical Greece and is made of
limestone. Although Ancient Greece did have many mountains, it also had a wide variety of
land patterns. These land patterns affected the way Ancient Greeks lived. It determined
where they could build their houses, and set up their communities. It also determined what
types of crops could be grown and where. Additionally the geography to Ancient Greece
affected the way Greeks communicated with each other and the world around them.
Today's Greece has a land area of 131,944 sq km or 50,944 miles. As a comparison this is smaller than Alabama. Greece is made up of a peninsula surrounded by over two thousand islands. The main peninsula consists of highlands or mountains surrounded by lowland at the coast.
The geography of Greece can be separated into some main categories:
Ancient Greece was covered with mountains. At almost every spot in Greece mountains can be seen. In Ancient Greece, these mountains became natural barriers that separated the Greeks from each other. The result of this was that many people in Greece became isolated, not only from other Greeks, but from other parts of the world as well.The mountains of Greece generally go from northwest to southeast.
Even though these mountains separated people, they were not very high in elevation. Most of the mountains in Greece are less than 8,000 feet high. The highest mountain is Mount Olympus, which rises to 2,917m or 9,573 ft.
There were several different types of land in Greece. The type of land available was important, because it determined where people could build houses, what types of food they could grow and what types of animals they could raise. Some basic types of land, and their description follows:
Scrub-Land is a type of landscape that has a very thin layer of soil. It is also very hard to get water to absorb into the earth in this type of landscape. Sometimes Scrub-Land would be covered with small shrubs. It was very hard to grow things on this land, because the good fertile soil could be easily washed away. Yet olives where a main crop that was grown in these lands
Even though this type of land was not very good for agriculture, it was very common, and could be found all over Ancient Greece. Mainly this type of land was found at the sides of mountains and hills.
Plains were not very common in Ancient Greece. Most of the plains were very small, and they would be surrounded by mountains. This made it so that they people who got to live in these small plains were isolated from the rest of Greece. Bigger plains, called Great Plains, are rare in Greece. Great Plains make up only 1/12 of the total land area. They are mainly found in Thessaly and Central Greece. These plains were great for growing wheat, and cereals.
Forests also covered the land of Ancient Greece. In the very beginning forests provided many resources such as fuits and nuts. Acorns and chestnuts were a major part of the diet. Although hunting was rare in Ancient Greek society. As time passed some of the forests were destroyed. This was because the trees, which provided wood, were cut down in order to build houses and boats. As the amount of forests was destroyed, scrub-land took its place.
Islands also make up a big part of Greece. Over 2,000 islands are included in Greece. Some of the islands have a landscape similar to mainland Greece. But, some of the islands are just mountains. They are made up rocks and cliffs that rise straight up from the sea. This is because the Aegean Sea, which is off the east coast of Greece, is actually sunken land. The part that we see as the islands are just the mountains of this sunken land that still protrude over the surface of the sea.
Ancient Greece was surrounded by three different seas. The Aegean Sea to the east, the Ionian Sea to the west and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The seas provided resources such as fish. It also was an important way to travel. Since much of Greece was blocked by mountains, people would sail around the sea, instead of traveling across the land, in order to get to other part s of Greece. This was an important because it allowed the Greeks to communicate and trade with other Greeks and the other countries around them. The sea was seen as a "highway" for trade and warfare. Regions where there were natural ports formed became an important way traders could access Greece.
Most of the rivers of Ancient Greece are relatively small. Most of them dry up during the summer. Like the mountains, these rivers were also natural barriers. They were often not navigable because of their small size. Only three rivers of Ancient Greece remained filled throughout the year, they are the Peneus, Spercheus and Alpheus. The larger rivers in the mountains form basins because of the soft limestone that they run through. These basins create lakes that are surrounded by water. Sometimes if the barrier that held a lake was removed, such as a big crack in the mountain or the earth, then the water in the lake could drain away. After this the lake will disappear, and often what remained was good fertile plain land.
Ancient Greece was also home to many caves and channels. They usually formed from a solution of dissolved limestone in water. When a layer of earth was less soluble, the water soaked underneath the surface of the earth and formed a river. If the underground river contained this solution of dissolved limestone in water channels or caves could form. Often in Ancient Greece these caves were used for religious ceremonies or as dwellings.