<P> Athens is a global city and one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe . It has a large financial sector, and its port Piraeus is both the largest passenger port in Europe, and the second largest in the world . The Municipality of Athens (also City of Athens) had a population of 664,046 (in 2011) within its administrative limits, and a land area of 38.96 km (15.04 sq mi). The urban area of Athens (Greater Athens and Greater Piraeus) extends beyond its administrative municipal city limits, with a population of 3,090,508 (in 2011) over an area of 412 km (159 sq mi). According to Eurostat in 2011, the functional urban area (FUA) of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union (the 6th most populous capital city of the EU), with a population of 3,828,000 . Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland . </P> <P> The heritage of the classical era is still evident in the city, represented by ancient monuments and works of art, the most famous of all being the Parthenon, considered a key landmark of early Western civilization . The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a smaller number of Ottoman monuments . </P> <P> Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery . Landmarks of the modern era, dating back to the establishment of Athens as the capital of the independent Greek state in 1834, include the Hellenic Parliament and the so - called "architectural trilogy of Athens", consisting of the National Library of Greece, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Academy of Athens . Athens is also home to several museums and cultural institutions, such as the National Archeological Museum, featuring the world's largest collection of ancient Greek antiquities, the Acropolis Museum, the Museum of Cycladic Art, the Benaki Museum and the Byzantine and Christian Museum . Athens was the host city of the first modern - day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics . </P> <P> In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι (Athēnai, pronounced (a. thɛ̂ː. nai̯) in Classical Attic) a plural . In earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη (Athēnē). It was possibly rendered in the plural later on, like those of Θῆβαι (Thêbai) and Μυκῆναι (Μukênai). The root of the word is perhaps not of Greek or Indo - European origin, and is a possible remnant of the Pre-Greek substrate of Attica, as could be the name of the goddess Athena (Attic Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnā, Ionic Ἀθήνη, Athēnē, and Doric Ἀθάνα, Athānā), that was always related to the city of Athens . During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα . However, after the establishment of the modern Greek state, and partly due to the conservatism of the written language, Ἀθῆναι (aˈθine) became again the official name of the city and remained so until the abandonment of Katharevousa in the 1970s, when Ἀθήνα, Athína, became the official name . </P>

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