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Location Information:
Piraeus is a municipality in the periphery
of Attica, Greece and within Athens urban
area, located 12 km southwest of its centre.
In addition to being the largest marine -
based shipping centre of Greece, Piraeus is
also the commercial hub of Greek shipping,
with most of Greece's shipowners basing
their commercial operations there, largely
centred around the street Akti Miaouli. In
its capacities as host to Greek shipping,
Piraeus has been affected significantly by
the various governments of Greece. Following
World War II, the Greek government attempted
to nationalize the proceeds of the insurance
payments given to Greek shipowners who had
lost vessels as a result of those vessels
having been commandered by the Allied
Forces; the insurance had been provided by
Lloyd's of London and guaranteed by the
coalition of the allied forces. Although the
Greek shipowners ultimately won their case
against the Greek government in the British
courts, most were uninterested in continuing
to base their headquarters in Piraeus both
out of distrust of the Greek government and
the fact that the war had left the greater
Athens area in a state of severe poverty. As
a result, the Greek shipowners left Piraeus
en masse in favor of operations in London,
New York, Alexandria and other major
shipping cities.
Piraeus is Greece's third largest
municipality and the second of the Greek
capital following the municipality of
Athens, with a population of 175,697 people
(in 2001) and an area of 11 km2 (4 sq mi).
The Piraeus urban area extends beyond the
administrative city limits to the suburban
municipalities, with a total population of
466,065 (in 2001) and a land area of 50
km2 (19 sq mi). The city is the
administrative capital of the Piraeus
Prefecture. Situated upon the Saronic Gulf,
Piraeus is the largest passenger port in
Europe and the third largest in the world, servicing about 20 million
passengers annually. With a throughput of
1.4 million TEUs, Piraeus is placed among
the first ten ports in container traffic in
Europe and the top container port in Eastern
Mediterranean
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