The origin of the olive tree dates back to the dawn of time, and its history is linked to the civilizations that developed on the Mediterranean Sea.
The olive tree is native to the territory that extends from the south of the Caucasus to the highlands of Iran, along the Mediterranean coasts of Syria and Palestine.
Then, the cultivation of olive trees spread to the islands of Cyprus and Crete up to Anatolia and Egypt. Finally it arrived in the Greek peninsula where, thanks to the Phoenicians, it became popular from the 16th century BC onward.
With the colonization of Magna Graecia, in the 7th century BC, the cultivation of olive trees spread to all the countries overlooking the Mediterranean.
From the 6th century BC, olive trees propagated from Greece to the whole Mediterranean basin, reaching the coasts of Africa, Italy, France and Spain.
