SALONIKI 



By H. G. Dwight 



"Saloniki is not a common city, but a country of the fortunate." — Bustathius, 

 Bishop of Saloniki in the fourteenth century. 



SALONIKI stands on rising ground 

 at the head of a long gulf, shaped 

 very much like what the classicists 

 call a Phrygian cap, or what is perhaps 

 more familiar to us as the liberty cap of 

 the French Revolution. This gulf, bend- 

 ing to the east in such a way that its inner 

 recesses can never feel the disturbances 

 of the open sea, is formed by that penin- 

 sula of Chalcidice whose three long 

 promontories of Kassandra, Longo, and 

 Athos are the most salient feature of the 

 northern Mgean (see map, page 271). 

 The longer western shore of the gulf 

 sweeps in a curve of over a hundred 

 miles from Saloniki to the tip of the pen- 

 insula of Thessaly. 



For the greater part of their course 

 these spreading coasts are both high and 

 admirable to look upon. But the line of 

 the Greek mainland is in particular nota- 

 ble because above it tower the three 

 classic peaks of Olympus (9,800 feet), 

 Ossa or Kissavos, as it is now known 

 (6,400 feet), and Pelion or Plessithi 

 (5,300 feet). 



STRATEGICALLY VALUABLE APPROACHES 



The natural advantages of this inland 

 sea are further increased by various 

 points, indentations, and islands that di- 

 vide it into four parts. The inmost sec- 

 tion is the landlocked bay of Saloniki, a 

 great oval harbor formed by the delta of 

 the Yardar and the opposite cape of Kara 

 Bournou. The span between the two is 

 no more than 6 or 7 miles, and they lie 

 10 miles from Saloniki, making a lake- 

 like basin of perfect security. 



This complicated and beautiful disposi- 

 tion of mountains, capes, and islands 

 makes the marine approaches of Saloniki 

 of equal interest to the strategist, the 

 geographer, or the mere admiring wan- 

 derer by sea. As regards approaches 



from the land, Saloniki is also happily 

 placed. 



NATURE DEFENDS THE CITY 



The city faces west and south, toward 

 Macedonia and Thessaly, looking out at 

 Olympus through the gate of the inner 

 bay. The immediate edges of the bay are 

 flat, having been gradually leveled by the 

 three rivers that pour into it. But at no 

 great distance from the water the final 

 spurs of the Rhodope Mountains make 

 an amphitheater which rises east of the 

 city into three peaks of 3,000 feet each 

 (see map of Europe, 28 x 30 inches, pub- 

 lished in the July, 1915, number of the 

 National Geographic Magazine). 



On the north the hill of Daoud Baba 

 reaches a height of 1,500 feet, whence 

 the ground drops away into the plain of 

 the Vardar. This fertile depression, lo- 

 cally known as the campania, stretches 

 inland and northward 40 or 45 miles to 

 the buttresses of the Pindus range and 

 the heights that separate western from 

 central Macedonia. 



These inclosing eminences are all in 

 Greek territory. Through them strike 

 five main avenues of exit, radiating to- 

 ward every part of the Balkan Peninsula. 

 The southernmost, the valley of the Vis- 

 tritsa, the classic Heliakmon, is the main 

 artery of communication between Salon- 

 iki, Thessaly, and Athens. No railroad, 

 however, as yet connects the systems of 

 northern and central Greece. 



IMPORTANT RAILROAD OUTLETS 



Next, to the southwest, opens the valley 

 of the Mavroneri (Lydias), an affluent 

 of the Vardar, which has always been a 

 highway between the yEgean and the 

 Adriatic. Through it runs the railway to 

 Monastir, 120 miles distant. 



A second and more important railroad 

 follows the main stream of the Yardar 



