The Haliacmon ( el, Αλιάκμονας, ''Aliákmonas''; formerly: , ''Aliákmon'' or ''Haliákmōn'') is the longest river flowing entirely in Greece, with a total length of . In Greece there are three rivers longer than Haliakmon,

Maritsa Maritsa or Maritza ( bg, Марица ), also known as Meriç ( tr, Meriç ) and Evros ( ell, Έβρος ), is a river that runs through the Balkans in Southeast Europe. With a length of ,Struma (Strymónas), both coming from

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Maced ...

, and Vardar ( el, Αξιός) coming from North Macedonia, but the length of each one of them in Greek territory is less than that of Haliakmon, which flows entirely in Greece. ''Haliacmon'' is the traditional English name for the river, but many sources cite the formerly official Katharevousa version of the name, ''Aliákmon''. Today, the only official variant is the

demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm, the demotic script for writing Vietnamese See also * * Demos (dis ...

''Aliákmonas''. It flows through the Greek regions of West Macedonia ( Kastoria, Grevena and

Kozani Kozani ( el, Κοζάνη, ) is a city in northern Greece, capital of Kozani regional unit and of Western Macedonia. It is located in the western part of Macedonia, in the northern part of the Aliakmonas river valley. The city lies above sea ...

regional units) and

Central Macedonia Central Macedonia ( el, Κεντρική Μακεδονία, Kentrikí Makedonía, ) is one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece, consisting of the central part of the geographical and historical region of Macedonia. With a populat ...

( Imathia and Pieria regional units). Its drainage basin is .

Name

The name (in Greek) is composite and derives from (salt, sea) and (anvil). In Greek mythology Haliakmon was one of the Potamoi, who were sons of Oceanus and Tethys, according to the allegorical obsessive-anthropomorphic concept familiar to the

Ancient Greeks Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

, on geological upheaval after Deucalion's deluge. An ancient tradition says that sheep that drank water from Haliakmon would turn their colour to white. This tradition is confirmed by the following record of the Roman author Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) : ''Similarly in Macedonia, those who want their sheep to be white go to Haliakmon, while those (who want them to be) black (go) to Axios ( Vardar)''. Ottoman Turks called the river Ince-Karasu (narrow-black water), a name still used in Turkey. The

Eastern South Slavic The Eastern South Slavic dialects form the eastern subgroup of the South Slavic languages. They are spoken mostly in Bulgaria and North Macedonia, and adjacent areas in the neighbouring countries. They form the so-called Balkan Slavic lin ...

name is Бистрица, ''Bistritsa'' which is still in use in Bulgaria and North Macedonia.A History of the Crusades, Volume IV The Art and Architecture of the Crusader States, Kenneth M. Setton, Harry W. Hazard, Edition: University of Wisconsin Press, 1977
, p.368.

Course and tributaries

Before the construction of its diversion dam near the village of Aghia Varvara in the mid-1950s, Haliakmon had no permanent river bed in its lowland course. It often flooded and formed extensive marshes. Its devastating fury in December 1935 remains fresh in memory of the elder inhabitants of the region (

Veria Veria ( el, Βέροια or Βέρροια), officially transliterated Veroia, historically also spelled Berea or Berœa, is a city in Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the regional unit of I ...

and Alexandreia). The Haliacmon rises in the

Gramos Gramos ( sq, Gramoz, Mali i Gramozit; rup, Gramosta, Gramusta; el, Γράμος or Γράμμος) is a mountain range on the border of Albania and Greece. The mountain is part of the northern Pindus mountain range. Its highest peak, at the ...

mountains in northern Greece, near the border with

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares la ...

. In its upper course it flows generally towards the east, and turns southeast near Kastoria. It describes a wide curve around the

Vourinos Vourinos ( el, Βούρινος) is a mountain range covering the eastern Grevena and southern Kozani regional units in Greece. Its highest elevation is . Its length is approximately from northwest to southeast. It is drained by the river Ali ...

mountains, and turns northeast near the village

Paliouria Paliouria ( el, Παλιουριά, before 1928: Ζημνιάτσι - ''Zimniatsi'') is a village in northern Greece. It is located at the root of the west end of the Kamvounia (Καμβούνια) mountain chain, near the Haliacmon river. Its alt ...

. It feeds the large artificial Lake Polyfytos, that was created after the construction of the namesake hydroelectric dam and consists almost its entire course through the Kozani prefecture. Over the bridge runs the

Lake Polyfytos Bridge The Servia High Bridge ( el, Υψηλή Γέφυρα Σερβίων, translit=Ypsili Gefyra Servion) is one of the longest bridges in Greece, with a length of 1,372 m. Construction began in 1972 along with the artificial lake and was completed in 1 ...

, part of the Athens-Kozani national road. Southeast of

, the Haliacmon enters the central Macedonian plains, an area of great importance to agriculture. It flows into the

Thermaic Gulf The Thermaic Gulf (), also called the Gulf of Salonika and the Macedonian Gulf, is a gulf constituting the northwest corner of the Aegean Sea. The city of Thessaloniki is at its northeastern tip, and it is bounded by Pieria Imathia and Lariss ...

west of the delta of the Axios (''Vardar''), northeast of the coastal town Methoni. Haliakmon's tributaries include Gramos, Ladopotamos, Pramoritsa, Grevenitikos, Venetikos and Tripotamos. Aliakmon satellite

The Haliacmon flows along the towns (in downstream order)

Nestorio Nestorio ( el, Νεστόριο, ''Nestório''; Ancient Greek: Βάττυν; mk, Нестрам and bg, Нестрам, ''Nestram'' or Нѐсрам, ''Nésram'') is a village and a municipality in the Kastoria regional unit of Macedonia, Gr ...

Argos Orestiko Argos Orestiko ( el, Άργος Ορεστικό, , Orestean Argos, before 1926: Χρούπιστα - ''Chroupista''; rup, Hrupishte) is a town and a former municipality in the Kastoria regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government refo ...

, Neapoli,

Velventos Velventos ( el, Βελβεντός) is a town and municipality in Kozani regional unit, West Macedonia, Greece. The 2011 census recorded 3,360 people in the village of Velventos, 3,399 in the municipal community and 3,448 in the municipal unit. Th ...

and Alexandreia.

Wetland

Haliakmon contains 33 kinds of fish. These include

brown trout The brown trout (''Salmo trutta'') is a European species of salmonid fish that has been widely introduced into suitable environments globally. It includes purely freshwater populations, referred to as the riverine ecotype, ''Salmo trutta'' morp ...

gilt-head bream The gilt-head (sea) bream (''Sparus aurata''), known as Orata in antiquity and still today in Italy and Tunisia (known as "Dorada" in Spain, "Dourada" in Portugal and "Dorade Royale" in France), is a fish of the bream family Sparidae found in th ...

, sardine, carp, pike,

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

, european anchovy,

nursehound The nursehound (''Scyliorhinus stellaris''), also known as the large-spotted dogfish, greater spotted dogfish or bull huss, is a species of catshark, belonging to the family Scyliorhinidae, found in the northeastern Atlantic Ocean. It is general ...

, bogue, garfish,

red porgy The red porgy (''Pagrus pagrus''), or common seabream, is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Sparidae. It is found in shallow waters on either side of the Atlantic Ocean, being present on the western coast of Europe and the Mediter ...

, saddled seabream, angler, bream, mediterranean sand smelt, sand steenbras,

mullus barbatus ''Mullus barbatus'' (red mullet) is a species of goatfish found in the Mediterranean Sea, Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea and the eastern North Atlantic Ocean, where its range extends from Scandinavia to Senegal. They are fished, mostly by trawli ...

, freshwater bass, tuna, salmon,

Mediterranean moray The Mediterranean moray (sometimes also called Roman eel, ''Muraena helena'', ''زريمباية'') is a fish of the moray eel family. It has a long eel-like body and is found in the eastern Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea. Its bite can be d ...

weever Weevers (or weeverfish) are nine extant species of fishes of family Trachinidae, order Trachiniformes, part of the Percomorpha clade. They are long (up to 37 cm), mainly brown in color, and have venomous spines on their first dorsal fin ...

, longfin gurnard, dogfish,

dusky grouper ''Epinephelus marginatus'' (), the dusky grouper, yellowbelly rock cod or yellowbelly grouper, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a grouper from the subfamily Epinephelinae which is part of the family Serranidae, which also includes the a ...

, school shark and turbot. About 30 of them are indigenous, while the rest were introduced by human intervention. Many of them are considered scarce and one, ''mavrotsironi'', lives nowhere else in the world, i.e. it is endemic. Μost of these kinds of fish have no commercial value but only biological, since they support the food web. Fish found in Haliakmon, like carp and

rainbow trout The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. The steelhead (sometimes called "steelhead trout") is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coasta ...

, indicate that its water is still pure. Some eels are found in its estuaries, that cannot migrate, hindered by the dams. For amateur fishermen the river has been enriched with introduced rainbow trout, that is not easy to reproduce, so there is no danger of disturbance of the river's ecosystem. In the place where the river flows into the sea, there has been formed over the years an extended

Delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), a letter of the Greek alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * D ( NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta") * Delta Air Lines, US * Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 Delta may also ...

of 4.000 hectares, because of the large dam that was constructed and retains much of the brought matters. As a result, silting has been greatly reduced and during the summer, when there is not much water, the sea enters and largely overwhelms the river bed. Flathead mullets and

European seabass The European bass (''Dicentrarchus labrax'') is a primarily ocean-going fish native to the waters off Europe's western and southern and Africa's northern coasts, though it can also be found in shallow coastal waters and river mouths during the s ...

es are found in Haliakmon's Delta. In the shallow marine areas formed there, the fry of many

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi (Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

's fish finds a place to reproduce, while about 90% of Greece's

mussel Mussel () is the common name used for members of several families of bivalve molluscs, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which ...

s are produced in the Haliakmon-Axios (Vardar) Delta. Aliki Kitrous is an area of 254 hectares, where 15–20.000 tons of salt are produced per year. Many kinds of birds have been observed in Haliakmon's region. They use it for accommodation and overwintering, like the ducks, or to rest on their long migratory journey. There have been observed 215 kinds of birds and about ⅓ of them nest in the region. Over 10% of the birds are endangered. They include

Dalmatian pelican The Dalmatian pelican (''Pelecanus crispus'') is the largest member of the pelican family, and perhaps the world's largest freshwater bird, although rivaled in weight and length by the largest swans. They are elegant soaring birds, with wingspa ...

and

curlew The curlews () are a group of nine species of birds in the genus ''Numenius'', characterised by their long, slender, downcurved bills and mottled brown plumage. The English name is imitative of the Eurasian curlew's call, but may have been i ...

, that are considered to be among the rarest birds in the world. 27 kinds of rare and protected kinds of birds nest in the region, like purple heron.

History

In antiquity,

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importanc ...

called the chain of mountains in which the river rises (northern

Pindus The Pindus (also Pindos or Pindhos; el, Πίνδος, Píndos; sq, Pindet; rup, Pindu) is a mountain range located in Northern Greece and Southern Albania. It is roughly 160 km (100 miles) long, with a maximum elevation of 2,637 metres ...

) the ''Canalovii''. According to Julius Caesar, the Haliacmon formed the line of demarcation between Macedon and Thessaly. In the upper part of its course it took a southeast direction through

Elimiotis Elimiotis or Elimeia ( grc, Ἐλιμιώτις or Ἐλιμία or Ἐλίμεια) was a region of Upper Macedonia that was located along the Haliacmon river. The capital of Elimiotis was Aiani, located in the modern municipality of Kozani, ...

, which it watered; and then, continuing to the northeast, formed the boundary between Pieria,

Eordaea Eordaea ( el, Ἐορδαία) was a geographical region of upper Macedonia and later an administrative region of the kingdom of Macedon. Eordaea was located south of Lynkestis, west of Emathia, north of Elimiotis and east of Orestis.Dimitri ...

, and Imathia. In the time of Herodotus the Haliacmon was apparently joined by the

Loudias The Loudias ( el, Λουδίας) or Lydias (Λυδίας), popularly called Mavroneri (Μαυρονέρι, "Blackwater", from its Ottoman Turkish name ''Kara Asmak'' قره آصماق) is a river in Central Macedonia that flows through the r ...

br>7, 127
the discharge of the lake of

Pella Pella ( el, Πέλλα) is an ancient city located in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is best-known for serving as the capital city of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon, and was the birthplace of Alexander the Great. On site of the ancient c ...

; but a change has taken place in the course of the Loudias, which no longer joins the Haliacmon, but flows directly into the

. The image below shows a wind gap between the Haliacmon and Loudias

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

s that is the probable ancient course of the Haliacmon. It was the domain of the eponymous river god

Haliacmon The Haliacmon ( el, Αλιάκμονας, ''Aliákmonas''; formerly: , ''Aliákmon'' or ''Haliákmōn'') is the longest river flowing entirely in Greece, with a total length of . In Greece there are three rivers longer than Haliakmon, Maritsa ( el ...

Gallery

File:Haliacmon Wind Gap.png, GIS map of Aliacmon File:Haliacmonas river from above.jpg, View from above File:20210402- DSF5103-HDR.jpg, The river near Sfikia

References

External links

{{Authority control Potamoi Rivers of Greece Landforms of Kastoria (regional unit) Rivers of Western Macedonia Landforms of Kozani (regional unit) Landforms of Grevena (regional unit) Landforms of Imathia Landforms of Central Macedonia Landforms of Pieria (regional unit)