What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

About what I’m proud of my country’s heritage? Well, I’m Greek, and undoubtedly, Greece’s most famous heritage is the Acropolis, a 150m (490ft) high rock above sea level with the famous Parthenon, built in the 5^th century BC.

I lived and worked in Athens for four years. During that time, I worked in a hotel in the heart of the city center. That hotel had a panoramic view of the Parthenon, so close that you thought you could touch it. I viewed it daily under different weather and time/daylight conditions. Parthenon is a beautiful temple, and considering the time it has been built, every time you watch it, it strikes you with fascination and awe. The best time to look at and enjoy it most is in the morning when the sun rises and casts the first sunbeams over it. And the other time frame is sunset, of course, and it gets dark, and the lightning goes on.

Another part of my country’s heritage I’m proud of and interested in learning more deeply about is the accomplishments of ancient philosophers and their crucial impact on the modern world. Philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras—the father of Mathematics—Protagoras, Diogenes, etc.; other scientists/philosophers like Hippocrates, regarded as the father of medicine. In entertainment and culture, I would mention the three famous tragedians, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, who influenced centuries afterward the production of literature, theater, film, and music for centuries. Moreover, thanks to their achievements, many Greek words can be found in science and culture/entertainment, such as Democracy, Astrology, Cosmos, Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Theatre, Music, etc.

And not to forget Greece’s heritage of the Olympic Games. The first games, dated by Aristotle, were held in 776 BC and were primarily part of a religious festival to honor Zeus, the father of the Greek Gods and Goddesses.