Ancient Greece: WHERE?

Ancient Greece civilization thrived around the Mediterranean Sea from the 3rd millennium to the 1st century BC.

Geographically, it indicates the heartland of Greek communities on the north coast and nearby islands of the Mediterranean Sea.
The heartland of ancient Greece consisted of the mountainous Balkan Peninsula and southern Italian Peninsula, as well as dozens of rugged islands in the northern Mediterranean region.

Mountains acted like walls separating communities. The mountains were once heavily wooded, but early Greeks steadily deforested the slopes for fuel, housing and ships. Most fields were level enough for farming and raising animals were small, supporting communities of only a few hundred inhabitants

The Mediterranean Sea, which connected Greeks with each other and with the rest of the world, encompasses the Aegean Sea and the Ionian Sea. In the world of the ancient Greeks, the seas were more efficient travel routes than roads. Ships could go much faster and carry much more cargo than wagons bumping over rough train. Access to the sea was so important that most Greek communities were within 60 km (40 miles) of the coast. Eventually, ancient Greeks inhabited about 700 communities clustered around the Mediterranean Sea. The settlements reached from the Iberian Peninsula (now occupied mostly by Spain) in the west to the Mediterranean coast of the Middle East in the east, extending southward to the northern coast of Africa.