Hellas

Macedonia is Greece

Macedonia is timeless Greece, one of the most beautiful regions of Greece. Since times immemorial, the northernmost region of Greece, extending from the Tempi Valley, up to the lower basins of the rivers Aliakmon, Aksios and Strymon, has been called Macedonia. Macedonia is the largest province in Greece and its capital, Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece. The beautiful Prespa lakes are one of Europes most important bird sanctuaries and Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. The city of Kastoria on lake Orestiada is concidered to be Greece's most beautiful city by the Greeks themselves. The Halkidiki Peninsula with its three prongs of Kassandra, Sithonia and Mount Athos run from crowded tourist resorts to beautiful remote beaches all the way to simple monasticism. Greece is the cradle of Western civilization, the origin of drama and history and philisophy, the birthplace of democracy. It is hard to imagine what civilized life would be like today without the influence of ancient Greece... It also is hard to imagine what the world would be like without the geometry of Euclides or Pythagoras, the logic of Aristoteles, the unique architectural style which has influenced architects all over the world, or even the fables of Aesopos known to children around the globe. Let us not forget also the Olympic Games, with their spirit of world-peace and brotherhood, first conceived and organized by the Greeks; or the Greek language which has enriched other languages with so many words and concepts, like philanthropy, harmony, music, techne, sophistication, architecture, ecology and thousands of others. Variety is, in fact, the hallmark of the geographical landscape of Greece. On the other hand, there are high mountains and entire mountain ranges such as the Pindus range (also known as Greece's backbone) or Mount Olympos (with its summit the Pantheon, the highest peak in Greece at an altitude of 2,917 metres) and the mountains of Macedonia and Thrace intersected here and there by a few valleys through which relatively small rivers flow. On the other hand, the endless lacework of the coastline produces a series of scenic surprises. It is these heavily indented shores which give Greece such rare beauty, quite unique in the Mediterranean. Greece offers travellers a unique blend of most beautiful Mediterranean landscape, overwhelming history and culture and a people of great hospitality. Greek cuisine has a great variety of dishes and can be an extremely satisfying culinary adventure for both meat-eaters and vegetarians. It could not be otherwise in the country that gave birth to the symposiums and the Epicurean philosophers. It was, in fact, Archestratos in 330 B.C., who wrote the first cookbook in History and let us not forget, that cuisine is a sign of civilization. Greece has a culinary tradition of some 4,000 years. Today all of Thessaloniki buzzes with life. The roads, parks, and squares are lively and on the commercial streets people frequent the shops with their bright window displays. ---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- Encyclopedia Britannica : Macedonia is considered the birthplace of the Greek race and of the twelve Greek gods. Ancient Traditions about the First Argaead King As the first written record of the Greek legend about the Macedonian Argaeads we may regard Aeschylus' lines in the play "The Suppliants," where the poet introduces Pelasgus, king of Argos, common ancestor of the Doric branch of Greeks, boasting that his race rules as far as the pure waters of the Strymon (end note 1). On the basis of the age-long legend handed down by the Greeks from prehistorical times, Aeschylus indirectly proclaims the descent of the Macedonians from the Doric branch and directly tells us about their origin from the Argive Heracleids, as those who ruled "the land of the Perrhaibians," "beyond Pindus," "near the Paeonians," "in the Dodona mountains" and "all the territory through which the pure Strymon flows." Because of the generally believed descent of these people from the Dorians, who claimed Pelasgus as their common ancestor and revered Heracles as their nonpareil national hero, Aeschylus with poetic elation somewhat broadens the legend about the Argaeads, to include the peoples of Thessaly and Epirus, whose royal families had their own traditions of descent from the gods. But it is clear that it chiefly concerns those living between Pindus, the Dodona mountains and the Strymon, in other words the Macedonians whose royal house traced its descent to the Argive Temenids. Thus, the poet who is the bearer par excellence of pan-Hellenic traditions and ideals, the fighter at Salamis and singer of the all-Greek surge against the invader from Asia, believes Macedonia to be a Greek land, and broadcasts its royal house's descent, according to Greek legend, from the Hellenic pantheon.