Geography Map Post 1 ! ! !

The Greek landscape includes both city and countryside. The sea provides easy ways of transport and communication. Surrounding islands and coastlines encourages the movement of people and goods. The sea had and still today influenences Greek climate. I will explain further down how climate has a dramatic effect gymnasts and their training programmes. The mediterranean climate brings hot, dry summers, and cold, wet winters. Their is enough rainfall to make farming without irrigation. Moving further away from the sea the Greeks have hotter summers and colder winters.

The mediterranean area is mountainous, but the mountains aren't very high. So therefore the countryside has small areas of flat land. The mediterranean area also has small-scale tectonic movements. Especially the movement of the African plate towards the north European plate. This usually results in devistating earthquakes that destroy the region.

It is said that "one can not understand Greek society without, understanding the ways in which the Greeks interact with their land". Today Greek archaelogists walk in lines across the countryside, collecting sediments form the middle of the bogs, or pollen grains through a microscope, as they ask new questions about the Ancient Greek geography.

The above is the geography of Greek climate and landscape. Climate also has a massive impact on gymnasts and their training programmes.


Gymnastics has been around for over 2,000 years but as a competitive sport it is more than 100 years old. Gymnastics dates back to ancient Greece. The early Greeks practiced gymnastics to prepare for war or combat. Activities such as jumping, running, discus, and boxing helped develop muscles needed for combat.


In 776 BC. the Greeks held the first Olympic Games. This was a festival dedicated to their God, Zeus. In this Game their was only a foot race of 200 yards. These Olympic Games continued for over 1,100 years. The ancient Greeks practised physical exercises and routines as a result. As a result gymnastics was added to the Olympics Games as well as weightlifting, boxing, throwing, jumping and wrestling. Today gymnastics is regarded as one of the oldest games in the Olympic Games.

Gymnastics soon became a central part of Greek education. It was mandatory for students of all ages.

'Gymnasia': means a building with an open-air court in which training takes place.

As there are sudden climate changes in Greece, training programmes vary further inland as the temperature gets hotter. In Greece I discovered that training programmes further inland are not as intense due to the increse in temperature. Gymnastic training programmes closer to the coastline tend to be very intense. In Ancient Greece gymnastics began as a warm up for a multitude of sports. The warm up included discus throwing and running. Wind could act at an advantage or disadvantage to the athletes involved. When throwing if the wind was blowing to your advantage it could result in a good throw, the same for running. It could also result in a bad throw or run if the wind was blowing against you. Today the wind is a major factor in athletics but not in gymnastics as gymnastics has developed from warm up activites,combat or war training, into a sport of its own.