About Eastern Macedonia and Thrace



The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace occupies the northeastern part of Greece. It borders with Turkey easterly, Bulgaria northern and with the Regional Unit of Serres westerly. Southwest is washed by the Aegean Sea and southeast by the Thracian Sea. It includes the Regional Unities: Drama, Kavala, Xanthi, Rodopi and Evros.

It has a total area of 14.157 thousand hectares and covers the 10.7% of the total area of the country.

Also includes two major islands of Thracian Sea, Thassos and Samothrace. 

Crossroad of major sea and land routes by which, for thousands of years, are moving people and goods, ideas and habits to and from the four cardinal points: from the Black Sea and Asia to Western Europe and from North Europe and the Balkans to the Mediterranean and North Africa.

The traces of its history, that start from the Paleolithic season and arrive to our days, are everywhere: caves, rock paintings, forts, temples, theaters, citadels, mines, graves, tumuli, marble quarries, Christian monuments, monasteries and holy places , aqueducts, Islamic monuments, traditional villages, Megara, mansions, tobacco warehouses.

The Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, during the ancient times, was covered by forests at the rate of about 80%, but today this percentage has limited to 55% per area. In its extent there are trackless forests, virgin nature, high mountains, rich flora and fauna, large rivers, lakes and lagoons and an endless coastline with clear blue waters and friendly beaches.

The region is a place of music, dance, feast and ritual. Dionysus and Orpheus never left from this earth. The reversals of nature (winter, spring, etc.) give an opportunity for reversals of another class: masquerading and walking over fires, and outspoken sprees, kidnappings and robberies, all in the context of ritual.