Mati (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Mάτι, meaning "eye") is a village in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. The village is located on the east coast of the

Attica Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...

region, east of

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, and it is a popular holiday resort.

Overview

Mati is a popular tourist destination with several hotels, restaurants, taverns, cafés, bars, night clubs, open air cinemas, sandy beaches and yacht marinas. The harbour at the nearby town of

Rafina Rafina ( el, Ραφήνα) is a suburban port town located on the eastern coast of Attica in Greece. It has a population of 13,091 inhabitants (2011 census). Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, of ...

serves as an access point to the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek language, Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish language, Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It ...

and it is frequently used by tourists to reach many of Greece's numerous islands. The Penteli mountains, which are covered with forests, lie to the west and northwest. Beaches cover the eastern part and restaurants, hotels, and taverns line the shore.

2018 wildfire

Mati was severely hit by a wildfire on 23 July 2018, which killed 103 people and injured 164. The immediate cause of the fire is thought to have been a man burning brushwood in his back yard. Thousands of vehicles, 4,000 homes, and 40,000 pine and olive trees were burned; the fire destroyed Mati and nearby Kokkino Limanaki. About 400 people waded deep into the sea and waited hours to be rescued. Temperatures reached 800°C, fanned by gale-force winds. People blamed government inaction for the high death toll; the government blamed illegal haphazard house-building. In March 2019 a report was produced detailing many mistakes made by the authorities: mismanagement by police and fire services, and a lack of coordination between rescue agencies, had caused "chaos and a collapse of the system... criminal mistakes and omissions". Survivors describe the 2018 fires in Mati The Prime Minister visited Mati weeks after the fire, and promised to create a "model town" within a year. A year later plots remained burned out and the land scorched. Home owners had by then received compensation of up to

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

6,000, but there was difficulty in getting permission to carry out repair work. Several residents started private court cases against the government. In August 2021 similar wildfires struck large parts of Greece, following a period of exceptionally high temperatures of up to 47°C.

Geography

Mati lies east of the

Penteli Penteli ( el, Πεντέλη) is a village and a municipality in the North Athens regional unit, Attica, Greece. It belongs to the Athens rural area. It takes its name from Mount Pentelicus. Municipality The municipality Penteli was formed at the ...

mountains, on the Marathonas Avenue north of

and south of

Nea Makri Nea Makri ( el, Νέα Μάκρη) is a town in East Attica, Greece. Since the local government reform of 2011, it has been a municipal unit within the municipality of Marathon. The municipal unit has an area of 36.662 km2. It is part of the ...

. Mati is about east of downtown

Road and sea access

The town can be accessed through Marathonos Avenue ( EO54) to the west or alternatively via the Dionissos mountains Northwest of Athens. Mati is closely located to the port of

, which serves as a local hub for holiday ferry boats to the

Cyclades islands The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...

Panorama view

References

External links

Aerial video of Mati after 23 July 2018 fires

NAOMA
- Mati Sailing Club {{Adjacent communities , Centre = Mati , North =

, Northeast = ''

'' , East = ''

'' , Southeast = ''

'' , South =

, Southwest =

Pikermi Pikermi ( el, Πικέρμι) is a suburb of Athens and a former community of East Attica regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rafina-Pikermi, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal u ...

, West =

, Northwest =

Mediterranean port cities and towns in Greece Populated places in East Attica