HISTORY OF ATHENS GREECE

In the fast developing economy as we live in today, the demand for quality is increasingly important. The fierce competition for increasing market share at any industry has driven corporations at the industry to increase the quality of services. Similarly, consumers have also great expectation for better quality of services. This situation creates pressure towards professionals’ all over the world.

In the field of business, especially in hospitality industry, creating an excellent product or service is the result of cooperation and teamwork from all parts of the company. Without common point of view of the company’s goals and common point of view of the qualities required to achieve that goal, it is difficult to come up with the desirable products or services.

 According to The History Place – Tourism Guide, among many tourism spots in the world, Athens – Greece is among place that provides many historical buildings as main tourism spots among others. Athens, which represents the Greece, is at crossroads of cultures, colors and civilizations. Concerning the Athens, this paper will elaborate the history of Athens – Greece where considers as the birthplace of democracy.

1.                  The Ancient of Athens

                       The competition of Athens with Poseidon

Historically, the name of Athens originates from the Greek mythology when there is a competition between the goddess Athena with Poseidon in order to determine who will be the protector of the city. The history mentions that during the competition, Poseidon presents a spring with sea water whilst Athena present an olive tree as she touched the ground of the sacred rock of the Acropolis. As the people in the Athens select Athena to be their protector and thus the city was named after the protector, Athens. Further, Athens represents the symbol as a city of wisdom and as a sea power. One main hallmark that describes the first settlement of Athens at 3000 BC is placed on the rock of Acropolis (Athens Greece Guide, 2007).

 Birthplace of democracy

The geographic area of Athens is placed in the plains of Attika where it is located between the Parnitha, Penteli, and Hymettos mountains and close to Saronic Gulf. Currently, the city is the home for over five millions people. Although it exhibits the characteristics of modern metropolis, the city kept their unique ancient atmosphere, reflecting the Athenians and their way of living (Athens Info Guide, 2009).

The way of living is now considered as the origin of concept of democracy that developed 2,500 years ago at the foot of Acropolis in Athens. Several systems in the ancient Athens resemble the current democracy practice. The Ancient agora, for instances, at that time composes of a parliament, a town hall, schools, meeting rooms, temples, sport events etc. Figure 3 shows the representations of Athens in the 5^th century BCE where it displays the Agora and its system (Athens Info Guide, 2009).

 

Agora, the commercial and social center of Athens, in the Ancient Athens is located about 400 meters in the north side of Acropolis. Right now, the location is the Monastiraki district. In addition, the hill of Pnyx, which is the Athenian Assembly met located in western end of the city (Athens Info Guide, 2009).

                       The place of story and learning

As the city has an attractive ancient history, in targeting the Athens as destination of choice, we encounter the major target for Athens - Greece is people who have historical memory at Greece and young people who have great passion of exotic place at Greece (Athens Info Guide, 2009).  

Concerning the positioning of Greece, we see that Greece should communicate the attractiveness of Greece that features many places of interests and offers the delighting services and unforgettable memories for people who visit Athens - Greece. Figure 4 shows example of exotic place in the Greece.

                       Most Important Religious Sites

As Athens historically exhibits many religious developments, the city present many religious sites including the Temple of Athena, which is known as Parthenon, located at atop the Acropolis. In addition, there are two other major religious sites: the Temple of Hephaestus and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion. The later is the largest temple at that time but now it ruins. Another important religious site is Erechteion, which is named after a legendary Athenian King (Athens Info Guide, 2009).   

In the peak period of 5^th and 4^th centuries, the city of Athens and its suburbs has about 300,000 inhabitants. The major part of residents at that time is foreign residents (known as metoikoi or metrics). About 10-20% of the population are adult male citizens.

References:
- http://www.article-biz.com/Judge-Me.html
- http://legalservices.co.in/blogs/entry/Invasion-of-Privacy-Issue 
- http://www.writelink.co.uk/614/blogs/entry/Writing-A-Cohesive-Paragraph