THE SITE AND SITUATION OF ATHENS
Greece is the most eastern country within western Europe. This location has affected both the formation of Greek identity and the planning of Athens, the capital. Greece has also been characterized as a country divided into many local pockets by its short rivers, deep inlets, and short mountain ranges. Greece is 51,000 square miles in size and approximately seventy percent of the country is mountainous. The longest river, the Aliakmon, is only 175 miles long.
Athens is in a semi-arid zone with a mediteranean climate. Thus the area
has three seasons and is good for agriculture. Athens is built on the plain
of Attica, a fertile flat area, surrounded by mountains on three sides.
Hills wind through the city. Athens lies slightly inland from the coast
and has a port five miles away.
This port handles half of Greece's total shipping and is large enough
to be a city in its own right. Yet it is part of the Athens conurbation.
In the center of Athens (both currently and in the past) is the Acropolis,
a rocky plateau that juts one hundred meters up. The Acropolis was the military,
religious, governmental center of Athens and the plain of Attica for most
of the history of Athens. A number of streams flow from the bottom of the
Acroplis. The combination of good farming and available water made the site
of Athens a hospitable place to inhabit while the mountains and the Acropolis
afforded protection. Additionally, being slightly 
inland offered further protection from invaders while still allowing
oversea trade. The situation of Athens in the middle of Greece and its excellent
port made it the economic center which led to its eventual designation as
the capital of Greece. However, it's location that was ideal for early settlements
is not so ideal for cars, industry, and pollution.
Athens is not a world city; the economy is based mostly in national trade, only the Greek countryside and Crete compose the hinterlands, and it does not have the population growth to make it a world city in the near future. Its port function connects it to the mediteranean community while its highways connect the city to the country. Athens however, is trying to assert itself to the world with the 2004 Olympics, planned pedestrian ways between the major archeological cites and, construction of a new international airport. While these plans will bring some attention to the city, it will not become a world city soon for two major reasons: (1) the city does not have the banking and real estate style of the rest of the world, discouraging foreign investment. Only 30% of real estate deals go through agents and most homes are bought without the aid of loans. Further, investing in real estate does not happen and this has hurt growth. (2) Europe already has many world cities and the functions associated with Geneva, London, Brussels, or Paris are not going to relocate in Athens or increase so much as to spill over into Athens.