Greece

Greece, also known as Hellas and officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country  in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula. The country has land borders with Albania, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria  to the north, and Turkey to the east. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of mainland Greece, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the tenth longest coastline in the world at 14,880 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands. Eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains, of which Mount Olympus is the highest at 2,917 m. Modern Greece traces its roots to the civilization of ancient Greece, generally considered the cradle of Western civilization. A developed country with a very high Human Development Index and standard of living, Greece has been a member of the European Union and its Economic and Monetary Union, NATO, and the European Space Agency since 2005. It is also a founding member of the United Nations, the OECD, and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization. Athens is the capital.