The historical and cultural heritage of Greece continues to resonate throughout the modern Western world - in its literature, art, philosophy and politics.
Situated in the far south of the Balkan peninsula, Greece combines the towering mountains of the mainland with over 1400 islands, the largest of which is Crete.
Post-World War II Greece has seen rapid economic and social change. Major contributors to the economy are tourism and shipping.
The financial crisis of the late 2000s hit Greece particularly hard, as the legacy of high public spending and widespread tax evasion combined with the credit crunch and the resulting recession to leave the country with a crippling debt burden.
In the spring of 2010, amid fears of an imminent default on debt payments, Greece's fellow eurozone countries agreed an unprecedented 110bn euro package to rescue its teetering economy. The main condition attached to the loan - drastic cuts in public spending and tax hikes - prompted protracted social unrest and destabilisation of the eurozone.
Parthenon, Athens: Built at the apex of the city-state's power
The 2010 rescue package soon proved to be unequal to the task of plugging the hole in Greece's finances, and the following year an even bigger bailout of 130bn euros was required to stave off the imminent danger of the country defaulting on its debts.
Greece has long been at odds with its close neighbour, Turkey, over territorial disputes in the Aegean and the divided island of Cyprus.
Relations warmed after both countries suffered earthquakes in 1999 and offered each other practical help.
Although the disputes remain unresolved, the Greek government gives strong backing to Turkey's EU bid. It sees dividends to be gained from the increased regional stability that it believes membership would bring.
Greece has been in dispute since the early 1990s with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Greece contends that the use of the name Macedonia by the neighbouring country implies a territorial claim over Greece's own region of the same name. The UN is involved in continuing mediation efforts.
Athens stepped into the global spotlight when the Olympic Games returned home in 2004. The games were hailed as a success, despite widely publicised fears that the infrastructure would not be complete in time.
Born in 1929, veteran Pan Hellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok) foreign minister Karolos Papoulias was elected president by parliament in 2004, and again for a final five-year term in 2010.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial post, as executive power resides with the prime minister.
Interim prime minister: Lucas Papademos
Lucas Papademos became interim prime minister in November 2011 following days of talks between the parties seeking to form an interim government of national unity to steer the country out of the acute political crisis triggered by Greece's long-running debt crisis.
Lucas Papademos: the man with the most difficult job in Europe?
His administration is a coalition of the Socialists (Pasok) of his predecessor George Papandreou, the centre-right New Democracy party and a small party of right-wing populists (Laos).
A technocrat and political independent, Mr Papademos had previously acted as an adviser to Mr Papandreou, taking part in the bailout negotiations between Athens and the "troika" of international creditors - the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank (ECB).
He has long played a leading role in economic affairs, having served as head of the Bank of Greece from 1994 to 2002 and vice-president of the ECB from 2002 to 2010.
In the former capacity, he oversaw Greece's transition from the drachma to the euro in 2002.
He now needs to draw on all his financial skills to reassure the markets that the new coalition government will be effective in tackling tax evasion and bring greater transparency to public finances.
Above all, he needs to convince Greece's creditors that his government will respect the terms of the latest EU bailout plan reached on 27 October and enact further austerity measures to qualify for the next tranche of its international loan - which the country needs urgently in order to stave off imminent bankruptcy.
Once the bailout funding is secured, his next task will be to lead the country to early elections, which have been tentatively scheduled for February 2012.
Mr Papademos was born in Athens in 1947 and attended university in the US, studying physics and electrical engineering before switching to economics.
He taught economics at Colombia University from 1975 to 1984, after which he returned to Greece and became chief economist of the Bank of Greece, going on to become the bank's governor in 1994.
In this role, he was strongly in favour of the single currency, arguing that the potential benefits to be derived from the introduction of the euro were enormous.
Critics say that he should have been in a position to know of inaccuracies in Greece's budget figures in the run-up to joining the euro, a charge he has dismissed.
During his time at the ECB, he was seen as a strong advocate of fiscal and budgetary discipline, sharing the view of his boss, Jean-Claude Trichet, that the ECB should not play a large role in bailing out highly indebted eurozone governments.
Mr Papademos's predecessor, George Papandreou, agreed to step down as prime minister early in November 2011 amid mounting criticism of his handling of Greek's crippling debt crisis.
Mr Papandreou was elected in 2009, just as the scale of the country's vast public debt was becoming all too apparent.
Under mounting pressure from the markets to curb the budget deficit, he announced several rounds of tough austerity measures, including deep cuts in public sector pay and pensions, fuel price increases, and a crackdown on tax evasion.
However, all these steps only bought a brief breathing space each time, and before very long the prospect of Greece defaulting on its debts was once more all too real.
In October 2011, eurozone leaders agreed a package of measures that would scrap 50% of Greece's debt in return for further austerity measures.
The deal was deeply unpopular with the Greek people, and faced with the prospect of further public sector strikes and civil unrest, Mr Papandreou announced a referendum on the plan.
This threw the whole deal into doubt, causing the markets to go into a spin and exacerbating the domestic political crisis.
Under severe pressure at home and abroad, Mr Papandreou withdrew his referendum plan and announced he would step down in favour of a national unity coalition.
Television is Greece's medium of choice. Research in 2009 showed that 78% of Greeks turn to the TV for news, followed by the press (41%), the net (35%) and radio (32%).
The media have enjoyed considerable freedom
State TV enjoyed a near-monopoly until the late 1980s, when new commercial services quickly gained a lion's share of the audience. Public TV lost a large slice of its advertising revenue as a result.
News, domestically-made variety programmes, comedies and game shows dominate peak-time TV.
Broadcasting is relatively unregulated by European standards, and many of the approximately 1,700 private radio and TV stations are unlicensed.
The media enjoy considerable freedom. However, Reporters Without Borders in 2009 warned of a growing trend of violence against the media and death threats against journalists. It said these were often claimed by anarchists and extreme leftists.
There were nearly 5 million internet users by mid-2010 (Internetworldstats).
ERA - public, operates main network ERA1, entertainment station ERA2, cultural station ERA3, sport and music station ERA4, regional services, external service Voice of Greece
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