7 Facts About Athens

1. The city of Athens got captured and sacked twice by the Persians within one year after Thermopylae.

2. Name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, originates from an earlier Pre-Greek language.

3. In the last round of voting, Athens defeated Rome with 66 votes to 41.

4. The National Garden of Athens was completed in 1840 and is a green refuge of 15.5 hectares in the centre of the Greek capital.

5. In January 2007, Athens faced a waste management problem when its landfill near Ano Liosia, an Athenian suburb, reached capacity.

6. In 2012, Athens was ranked the world's 39th richest city by purchasing power and the 67th most expensive in a UBS study.

7. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Greece.