What is .ελ?
IANA delegated .ελ on November 3, 2015, as part of the effort to let people use domain names entirely in their own script.
A little context on Greece: the capital is Athens, the main language is Greek, the currency is the Euro (EUR) and the international dialing code is +30.
Greece shares land borders with 4 countries, so the ccTLDs next door are .al (Albania), .bg (Bulgaria), .tr (Türkiye) and .mk (North Macedonia).
IANA lists ICS-FORTH GR as the manager of .ελ, with an address in Greece. The registry's website is http://www.gr. ccTLD managers set their own policies — who can register, which second-level names exist, pricing to registrars — so those rules differ from country to country.
On the technical side, .ελ is served by 6 authoritative name servers, 4 of them reachable over IPv6. It is also DNSSEC-signed: the root zone carries a DS record for .ελ, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically.
Greece also has another country-code domain in the root zone: .gr.
Same registry, other endings
1 other TLD shares this operator.
.ελ FAQ
What country is .ελ?
.ελ is the country-code top-level domain for Greece, in Southern Europe.
Who owns the .ελ domain?
IANA lists ICS-FORTH GR as the manager of .ελ: it runs the registry and sets the rules for Greece's ccTLD. Individual .ελ names belong to whoever registers them.
Can I register a .ελ domain from the US?
It depends on ICS-FORTH GR's policy. Some ccTLDs are open to anyone in the world, while others require a local address, company or trademark. Check the registry (http://www.gr) or an accredited registrar before you buy.
Is .ελ DNSSEC-signed?
Yes. The root zone has a DS record for .ελ, so DNSSEC validation works all the way down from the root.
How is .ελ written in the DNS?
As the ASCII "A-label" xn--qxam. Browsers convert it back to .ελ for display.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed September 10, 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
