Extract

Greece with the Aegean basin is part of the great mountain zone running from the Alps to the Himalayas. For 70 million years the land mass of Africa has been burrowing irresistibly under Europe. This mighty force has displaced, shattered, crumpled, and stretched the rocks, creating mountain ranges, ocean trenches, gorges, and upland basins. The Cretan island arc displays one of Europe's most dramatic changes of level, from the Hellenic trench, 4,335 m. (14,222 ft.) deep, immediately to the south, to peaks up to 2,456 m. (8,058 ft.) high on *Crete itself. Northward lies the Cycladic chain of volcanoes (see cyclades), from *Nisyros through Santorini (see thera) and *Melos to *Methana, the volcano within sight of Athens. Mainland mountains range from Taygetus (2,407 m.: 7,897 ft.) in the south through *Parnassus (2,457 m.: 8,061 ft.) to *Olympus (1) in the north, at 2,917 m.