Greece by Claudia Martin
Regarded as the cradle of Western civilization, Greece is the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, political science, major mathematical principles and Western drama, as well as the Olympic Games. But it is also a country of mountains - 80 per cent of the country is mountainous - as well as islands - of more than 1,000 islands, 227 are inhabited. And it has the longest coastline of any Mediterranean country. From antiquity to modernity, from the tallest mountains to the tiniest islands, from the Romans to the Venetians to the Ottomans, Greece is a beautiful photographic exploration of this fascinating country. Arranged by region, the book celebrates such classical highlights as Athens's Acropolis, the ruins at Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the Byzantine churches of Thessaloniki and the ancient Temple at Delphi. It also explores the beauty of the islands of the Aegean and the Ionian Sea, the Zagori mountains in the northwest of the country and the hydrothermal craters on Nisyros. Presented in a landscape format and with captions explaining the story behind each entry, Greece is a stunning collection of images celebrating one of the world's most popular destinations.