more......Fun Facts about Greece – taken from WorldWideGreeks 35. Thousands of birds stop in Greece’s wetlands on their migrations. As many as 100,000 birds from northern Europe and Asia spend their winters there. 36. The saying “taking the bull by its horns” comes from the Greek myth of Hercules saving Crete from a raging bull by seizing its horns. 37. The city of Rhodes (the capital of the island of Rhodes) is the most popular location for tourists in Greece. The city is famous for housing one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: the Colossus of Rhodes (from which the word “colossal” is derived). This gigantic 98-foot (303-meter) statue of the god Helios, whose legs straddled the harbor, was destroyed by an earthquake in 226 B.C. 38. The first Olympic Games took place in 776 B.C. The first Olympic champion was a Greek cook named Coroebus who won the sprint race. 39. Slaves made up between 40% and 80% of ancient Greece’s population. Slaves were captives from wars, abandoned children, or children of slaves. 40. A long-standing dispute between Britain and Greece centers around the Elgin Marbles (the Greeks prefer to call them the Parthenon Marbles), which are housed in a London’s British Museum. The British government believes that it acquired them fairly through its purchase from Lord Elgin, while the Greeks claim the purchase was illegal.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:05:17 +0000
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