Time zone EET (UTC+2) Vehicle registration Z Area code 210 | Elevation 5 m (16 ft) Postal code 166 72 Local time Saturday 4:00 PM | |
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Weather 21°C, Wind NE at 37 km/h, 27% Humidity |
Varkiza (Greek: Βάρκιζα), also Alianthos (Αλίανθος) is a suburb of greater Athens forming part of the municipality of Vari-Voula-Vouliagmeni in southern Attica of the Megalo Daktylo (Large Finger). It lies approximately 2 km south of Vari, 22 km S of Athens, SW of the Eleftherios Venizelos International Airport and the Attiki Odos (numbers 6 and 62), NW of Cape Sounio, and south of the Hymettus Ring. The locality is linked with Poseidonos Avenue (GR-91), just east of Vouliagmeni.
Contents
Map of Varkiza, Vari 166 72, Greece
The Hymettus mountains lie to the northwest and the Mesogeian plain to the north. Another mountain lies toward the northeast. Most of the area's streets take names from Greek mythology, and its main street, Poseidonos, forms a connection with the route running from Neo Faliro down toward the Glyfada boundary. Forests cover partpart of the municipality, but much of the mountainous area is rocky and grassy. Varkiza has a widely known beach, which has tennis courts, parkland and fields, restaurants, taverns, complexes and other amenities. The urban sprawl sporadically covers the farmlands and moves west of Varkiza.
The population were rural until the 1960s while suburban housing sprang up between the 1960s and the 1990s, making most of the population urban and expanding to this day. Housing development began in the central part of district where farmland once used to dominate its central areas and within the Saronic Gulf. Later, Varkiza became part of the Athens Metropolitan Area, and in the 1960s, the connecting highway had two lanes added.
History
The Treaty of Varkiza was signed in 1945 in an attempt to end the Greek Civil War.
Other
Varkiza has one school (dimotiko), banks, a church, restaurants, bars, taverns, a post office and couple of squares (plateies).
Since 2001 Varkiza has been hugely modernised. Varkiza just after the World War II was a small village for fishermen but today has developed to a small town for the rich with one of the best beaches in Attiki. In the summer the population triples as Varkiza resort is right next to the top summer clubs which are located on the "Glyfada strip".