Greece is a country in southeastern Europe, strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa, consisting of 2 mainland peninsulas and thousands of islands throughout the Aegean and Ionian seas. It's often called the birthplace of Western civilization, and Athens, its capital, retains ancient landmarks including the 5th-century-B.C.E. Acropolis citadel and Parthenon temple.Greece (552,000 km² – 63.2 million inhabitants) is bordered by Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north and Turkey to the northeast.