Top 10 Greece facts

Greece marched twice, both first and last. According to the tradition, Greece always walks first due to its historical status as the progenitor of the Olympics, while the host nation always marches last. Since in Athens, Greece was also the host nation, they walked twice.

Crete. El Greco (Dominikos Theotokopoulos) born in either the village of Fodele or Candia (present day Heraklion) on Crete in 1541. He went to Venice around 1567. In 1577, El Greco migrated to Madrid, then to Toledo, where he produced his mature works.

Corfu is the second largest of the Ionian Islands, west of Greek Peninsula. It was long controlled by Venice, which repulsed several Turkish sieges, before falling under British rule following the Napoleonic Wars. Corfu was eventually ceded by the British Empire and unified with the modern Greece in 1864.

Greek. The primary language used in the eastern Roman provinces even before the decline of the Western Empire was Greek, having been spoken in the region for centuries before Latin. The use of Latin as the language of administration persisted until formally abolished (in favour of Greek) by Heraclius in the 7th century.

In Greece. Arcadia is a historical land situated in the middle part of the Peloponnese in Greece. It's mountainous, covered in forest and hardscrabble, from ancient times it was poor and sparsely populated. In art it became a symbol of happiness, simple life and escape from civilization's concerns.

Southern Apennine Peninsula with Sicily. Magna Graecia ("Great Greece") was the name given by the Romans to the coastal areas of Southern Italy in the present-day regions of Campania, Apulia, Basilicata, Calabria and Sicily that were extensively populated by Greek settlers.

Greeks. According to Herodotus, an Athenian runner named Pheidippides was sent to run from Athens to Sparta (225 km, 140 miles) to ask for assistance before the battle. Then, following the battle, the Athenian army marched quickly the 40 km (25 miles) to Athens, in order to head off the Persian forces. Later these two events became confused with each other, leading to a legendary but inaccurate story (first recorded by Plutarch in 1st century AD) of Pheidippides running from Marathon to Athens after the battle, to announce the Greek victory.

Macedonians. The sarissa is a type of long spear (about 4–7 metres or 13–23 ft in length) first introduced by Phillip II of Macedonia in Macedonian phalanx formations. It was usually composed of two lengths and was joined by a central bronze tube only before a battle. The tight formation of the phalanx created a "wall of pikes", and the pike was so long that there were fully five rows of them projecting in front of the front rank of men.

Agamemnon. In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra and the father of Iphigenia, Electra or Laodike, Orestes and Chrysothemis. When Helen, the wife of Menelaus, was taken to Troy by Paris, Agamemnon commanded the united Greek armed forces in the ensuing Trojan War.

Zeus. Olimpia was a famous center of Zeus worship. This place was famous for the huge statue of Zeus (by Phidias), made of gold and ivory, considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.