Κεντρική Μακεδονία

Kentrikí Makedhonía - Central Macedonia

Macedonia is the biggest district of Greece, extending from Épiros in the west to Thrakia in the east. The neighbours along the northern borders are Albania, North Macedonia and Bulgaria. The south-western border is to Thessalia, and the rest of the southern border is coastline. Because of its size the district is divided into three parts, Western, Central, and Eastern Macedonia. The biggest city of Macedonia is Thessaloniki, which is the second-biggest city of Greece with 450,000 inhabitants, about 1 Million together with its suburbs.

The whole area has limestone mountain ridges, all karstified with numerous caves. Still, the tourist caves are concentrated on the area around Thessaloniki. The most famous cave to foreign tourists is at Petralona on the Halkidiki peninsula. A famous site for archaeological findings and also closed for many years now. The story of this cave is both interesting and annoying. Alistratis is horizontal, a huge passage with numerous speleothems. But the favourite of our reviewer is Agios Georgios cave at Kilkis, north of Thessaloniki, close to the Bulgarian border. Off the beaten track, far too few visitors for its beauty, and spectacular cave coral you will never see again in any other cave.