The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, ; sq, Maqedonia e Veriut, (Macedonia before February 2019), officially the Republic of North Macedonia,, is a country in Southeast Europe. It gained independence in 1991 as one of the successor states of Socialist Feder ...

and the second longest river in

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

, in which it reaches the

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 ...

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...

. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . The maximum depth of the river is .

Etymology

The origin of the name ''Vardar'' derives from

Thracian The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern and Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied ...

''Vardários''. It comes from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

(PIE) *''(s)wordo-wori-'' ("black water"). It can be considered a translation or similar meaning of ''Axios'', which itself is Thracian for 'not-shining' from PIE *''n.-sk(e)i'' (cf. Avestan ''axšaēna'' ("dark-coloured")). It is found in another name of the city at the mouth of the Danube, called ''Axíopa'' ("dark water") in Thracian, which was later translated into Slavic as ''

Cernavodă Cernavodă () is a town in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania with a population of 20,514. The town's name is derived from the Bulgarian ''černa voda'' (черна вода in Cyrillic), meaning 'black water'. This name is regarded b ...

'' (“black water”).Katičic', Radoslav. ''Ancient Languages of the Balkans''. Paris: Mouton, 1976: 149 The name ''Vardários'' (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by 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 ...

in the 3rd century BC. The same name was widely used in the

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

era. The word may ultimately be derived from the PIE root '' werǵ-'', which is also the source of the English ''

work Work may refer to: * Work (human activity), intentional activity people perform to support themselves, others, or the community ** Manual labour, physical work done by humans ** House work, housework, or homemaking ** Working animal, an animal t ...

''. Its name ''Axios'' is mentioned by

Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...

(Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849) as the home of the

Paeonians Paeonians were an ancient Indo-European people that dwelt in Paeonia. Paeonia was an old country whose location was to the north of Ancient Macedonia, to the south of Dardania, to the west of Thrace and to the east of Illyria, most of their lan ...

allies of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

. Pjetër Bogdani would call it ''Asi'', an earlier Albanian-language name for the river.

Geography

The river rises at

Vrutok Vrutok ( mk, Вруток, ) is a village in the municipality of Gostivar, North Macedonia. The village is situated on the slopes of Mount Bistra by the Korab mountains, near the town of Gostivar. Geography Its importance belongs to the water ...

, a few kilometers southwest of

Gostivar Gostivar ( mk, Гостивар , Albanian and Turkish: ''Gostivar''), is a city in North Macedonia, located in the upper Polog valley region. It is one of the largest municipalities in the country with a population of 81,042, and the town als ...

in North Macedonia. It passes through

Skopje Skopje ( , , ; mk, Скопје ; sq, Shkup) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It is the country's political, cultural, economic, and academic centre. The territory of Skopje has been inhabited since at least 4000 BC; r ...

and into Veles, crosses the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

border near

Gevgelija Gevgelija ( mk, Гевгелија; ) is a town with a population of 15,685 located in the very southeast of the North Macedonia along the banks of the Vardar River, situated at the country's main border with Greece (Bogorodica- Evzoni), the poi ...

, Polykastro and

Axioupoli Axioupoli ( el, Αξιούπολη), known until 1927 as Boymitsa (Боймица, Μποέμιτσα), is a small town and a former municipality in the former Paionia Province of Kilkis regional unit, Greek Macedonia. Since the 2011 local gov ...

("town on the Axiós"), before emptying into the

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 ...

, west of

in northern Greece. The Vardar basin comprises two-thirds of the

territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...

. The valley features fertile lands in the Polog region, around

and in the Thessaloniki regional unit. The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The superhighways

Greek National Road 1 Greek National Road 1 ( el, Εθνική Οδός 1, abbreviated as EO1) is the old single carriageway road connecting Athens with Thessaloniki and Evzonoi, the border crossing between Greece and North Macedonia. For most of its length, it ...

in Greece and M1 and E75 run within the valley along the river's entire length to near Skopje. The river was very famous during the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University ...

and remains so in modern-day

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula ...

as the inspiration for many folk songs, of which the most famous is Vardar Ovasi. It has also been depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag.

Project to construct the Danube-Vardar-Aegean Canal

The project to construct the Danube-Morava-Vardar-Aegean Canal has been a dream for a long time. Le Figaro published a project of Athens and Belgrade on 28.08.2017. The Greek-Serbian proposal made in Beijing is Pharaonic: 651 km. A project worth 17 billion.The Greek-Serbian proposal made in Beiji

/ref>

Vardaris wind

The ''Vardaris'' or ''Vardarec'' is a powerful geostrophic wind, prevailing northerly

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

as well as in

. At first it descends along the "canal" of the Vardar valley, usually as a breeze. When it encounters the high mountains that separate Greece from North Macedonia, it descends the other side, gathering a tremendous momentum and bringing cold conditions to the city of

and the Axios delta. Somewhat similar to the mistral wind of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, it occurs when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the

, as is often the case in winter.

Gallery

File:Northwestern Macedonia.png, Map of the northwestern part of North Macedonia including the source of the Vardar File:Axios-Vardar river map.jpg, Axios/Vardar river map File:Veles Gorge Vardar Macedonia.jpg, Veles Gorge File:River Vardar (2).JPG, River Vardar near Gradsko File:River Vardar (1).JPG, River Vardar near Gradsko (2) File:Axios river.jpg, Vardar (Axios) river in

File:Надолжен профил на Вардар.jpg, Longitudinal hidrographic profile of the flow of river Vardar

References

External links

Proceedings of the 1st Axios Catchment Consortium Meeting
by the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

—DG Research
PIM "Ivan Milutinović", Belgrade, SerbiaMorava - Vardar (Axios) Navigation Route
��About 1,200 km shorter route (three days shorter time of navigation) from

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; names in other languages) is the capital and largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain and the Balkan Peninsula. Nearly 1,166,763 mi ...

Port of Thessaloniki The Customs House, now passenger terminal, in the early 1900s. The Port of Thessaloniki ( el, Λιμάνι της Θεσσαλονίκης) is one of the largest seaports in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is considered the gateway Port to the Bal ...

than across

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

and

. Electric power production, improvement of water quality and regulation of flooding wave.
Morava—Vardar (Axios) Navigation Route map

Hydropower and navigation system "Morava"
��Concepts of regulation of rivers Great Morava and South Morava for navigation and hydropower production {{Authority control Geography of ancient Paeonia Geography of Macedonia (region) International rivers of Europe Landforms of Central Macedonia Landforms of Kilkis (regional unit) Landforms of Thessaloniki (regional unit) Rivers of Greece Rivers of North Macedonia Geography of Skopje