Central Greece outside Athens

(Local Name: Stereá Elláda) One of the most mountainous districts in the country, Central Greece lies in the heart of the mainland.

It acquired its name - Stereá Elláda (meaning firm Greece) after 1821, since it constituted the only clearly continental portion of the newly liberated Greek state.

Its geographical position accounts for the great variety in the regions climate, which is dry and mountainous inland and mild on the coast. The contours of its landscape, too, are very diverse.

Inhabited since the distant past, Central Greece is a place with a rich and distinctive history.

Here is the legendary city of Thebes, Mt Elikonas (home of the Muses), as well as Delphi, antiquity's most important center of worship.

The region is also famous for the great battles fought here, some of which affected the course of history (Plataiai, Chaironia), some of unsurpassed symbolic significance (Thermopylae).