Online Encyclopedia

Attica

This article is about Attica in Greece. For other Atticas, see Attica (disambiguation)

Statistics
Capital:	Athens
Area:	3,808 km²
Inhabitants:	3,756,607 (2001) Ranked 1st
Pop. density:	987 inh./km² Ranked 1st
Code for the municipalities	01xx, Athens, 03xx, eastern Attica Peninsula 11xx, Eleusis, 40xx, Piraeus, Sarinic, Troizina Hydra, Spetses, Kythira
ISO 3166-2:	GR-A1 (old: GR-02)
Area codes in Greece:	11+30-210 11+30-229x0 11+30-27340
Postal code:	1xx xx except Kythera 801 00 in Kythera
Car designation:	YO, YT, YX, YY, YZ, ZA-ZZ
Map

Attica (in Greek: Αττική, Attikí) is a nomos (prefecture) in Greece, containing Athens, the capital of Greece.

Attica is located in what is today southern Greece, and covers about 3,800 square kilometers. In addition to Athens, it contains within its area the cities of Peiraeus, Eleusis, Megara, Laurium, and Marathon, as well as the islands of Salamis, Aegina, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, Kythira, and Antikythera. About 3,700,000 people live in the nomos, of which more than 95% are habitants of the Athens metropolitan area.

Athens was originally the capital of Central Greece.

1 Climate
2 History
3 Transportation
4 Communications

4.1 Television

5 Municipalities
6 Provinces
7 Prefectural sects of Attica (agglomeration)
8 Communities and Subdivisions

Contents

1 Geography

Geography

Attica is a peninsula jutting into the Aegean Sea. Mountains divide the peninsula into the plains of Pedia, Mesogeia, and Thriasia. To the north it is bordered by the Boeotian plain and to the west it is bordered by Corinth. The Saronic Gulf lies to the south and the island of Euboea lies off the north coast.

The Cephisus River is the longest river, and Parnetha or Parnitha is the tallest mountain in Attica.

Climate

Its climate includes hot summers and cool to mild winters in low lying areas and its plains and most of the Saronic. Winter is very common in the mountains of Parintha and areas that lie 1,000 m above sea level as its lowesy

In the winters of 1999 and February 2004, recent snowstorms plundered the area especially blocking and closing much of its roads as snow accumulated to 2 m.

History

The process of how Attica was united by Athens is not entirely clear, but it concluded at some point in the first half of the 7th century BC when Eleusis and the surrounding plains were joined to the Athenian state, and its inhabitants became citizens. Even then, the boundaries were not fixed, as Athens struggled with Megara for control of Salamis, and with Boeotia over border towns like Oropus for centuries. See History of Athens.

Attica later became part of (successively) the Roman and Byzantine Empires, the crusader Duchy of Athens, and at last the Ottoman Empire.

Transportation

The area is connected by roads and highways

Greece Interstate 1 (superhighway)
Greece Interstate 3 (old higway of Athens-Thessaloniki)
Greece Interstate 8 (old highway linking Patras, the Peloponnese and Athens)
Greece Interstate 8A (superhighway)
Greece Interstate 54 , Marathonos Avenue
Greece Interstate 79
Greece Interstate 81
Greece Interstate 83
Greece Interstate 85 (rare)
Greece Interstate 89
Greece Interstate 91
Attiki Odos, number 6 (private owned superhighways), first opened in 2001 in the eastern part
- Hymettus Ring (number 64), opened in 2004, the southern section will open later.
- Aigaleo Ring (number 65), opened in 2004
- Ano Liosia Ring (opening soon)