|
|
|
|
|
Macedonia....
|
|
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan
peninsula in south-eastern Europe with an area of about 67,000 square kilometres and a population of 4,76 million. The territory corresponds to
the basins of (from west to east) the Aliákmon, Vardar/Axios and Struma/Strymon
rivers (of which the Axios/Vardar drains by far the largest area) and the
plains around Thessaloniki and Serrai.
|
 |
|
The region is divided between Greece, with roughly half
of the area and population, split between the three peripheries of Central
Macedonia, West Macedonia, and East Macedonia and Thrace; the Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, with around 40%; and Bulgaria, with less
than a tenth, in Blagoevgrad Province. |
|
|
|
The name of Macedonia has not been always used with
regard to the region as defined above. In its beginnings, the ancient state
of Macedon encompassed only a part of this region. Later, throughout the
Middle Ages, the name was used to refer to southern Thrace and the Rhodopes,
an area divided now between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, whereas
present-day Macedonia was called in a number of different ways by the
Byzantine Empire and the Slavic kingdoms, which ruled over the region. |
|
|
|
|
Macedonia is known to have been inhabited since
Neolithic times. Its recorded history began with the emergence of the
ancient kingdom of Macedon in what is now the Greek part of
Macedonia and
the neighbouring Bitola district in the south of today's Republic of
Macedonia. By 500 BC, the early Macedonian kingdom had become subject to
the Persian Empire but played no significant part in the wars between the
Persians and the Greeks. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
