Ancient Greece

Geography

How has the geography of North Carolina impacted your lives?

Driving

Vacation

School

Clothing

Recreation

Geography had the same impacts on Ancient Greeks

Climate of Ancient GreeceGreece has a Mediterranean climate

• Winters are mild and wet

– allows for limited farming

– grapes and olives

• Summers are warm and dry

– leads to drought

– grapes and olives are one of the few plants that can survive the summer droughts

• November

– Greece receives 2.2 inches of precipitation

• Average temperature is a balmy 64 degrees

– North Carolina receives 2.97 inches of precipitation

• Average temperature is a chilly 45 degrees

How is this different from North Carolina?

Physical GeographyGreece is very mountainous

• 75% of Greece is covered by mountains

• Difficult to farm

Surrounded by seas

• Greece is located on the Balkan Peninsula

• Made trade easier

– Could get what they could not grow

– Also brought ideas back with them

Ancient Greek CultureCut off by mountains and the seas

• Isolated

– Led to the formation of city-states

– Limited interaction and unity of Ancient Greece

– Created fierce rivalries

• Sea became a vital link

– Hundreds of bays to provide safe harbor for ships

– Skilled sailors

• Traded olive oil, wine, and marble

• Returned with grains, metals, and ideas

– Adapted the Phoenician alphabet

– Became basis for all Western alphabets

Ancient Greek CultureWhat did the Greeks do?• They were isolated• They had nice weather • They had fierce rivalries What Ancient Greeks did• Went to war

– Peloponnesian, Trojan, and Persian Wars

• Developed great thinkers– Homer, Socrates, Plato – Herodotus- Father of history– Archimedes- Archimedes Screw

• Built temples to the gods and goddesses

Ancient Greek CultureWrote poetry and drama

• Tragedy– Sophocles– Euripides

• Comedies– Aristophanes

• Performed outside with little or no scenery

• Stadium seating

How did the Geography of Greece impact Ancient Greeks?

Created

• Great thinkers

• Great architecture

• Skilled traders

• War mongers

• Technology

Geography of Greece

• Greece is a small country in Europe.

• Greece is near the Mediterranean Sea.

• The main part of Greece in on a peninsula.

• A peninsula is a body of land surrounded by water on three sides.

• The rest of Greece is made up of islands.

Greek City-States

• Because Greece is made up of many islands, and has many tall mountains, the Greeks began to build city-states instead of one country.

• A city-state is a city with its own laws, rulers, and money.

• City-states were cities that acted like countries.