The Haliacmon ( el, Αλιάκμονας, ''Aliákmonas''; formerly: , ''Aliákmon'' or ''Haliákmōn'') is the longest river flowing entirely 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 wit ...

, 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 Mac ...

, and

Vardar The Vardar (; mk, , , ) or Axios () is the longest river in North Macedonia and the second longest river in Greece, in which it reaches the Aegean Sea at Thessaloniki. It is long, out of which are in Greece, and drains an area of around . T ...

( el, Αξιός) coming from

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 ...

, 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 Katharevousa ( el, Καθαρεύουσα, , literally "purifying anguage) is a conservative form of the Modern Greek language conceived in the late 18th century as both a literary language and a compromise between Ancient Greek and the contempo ...

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 Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used ...

''Aliákmonas''. It flows through the Greek

regions In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and the interaction of humanity and t ...

West Macedonia Western Macedonia ( el, Δυτική Μακεδονία, translit=Ditikí Makedonía, ) is one of the thirteen regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia. Located in north-western Greece, it is divided into the regional unit ...

(

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...

Grevena Grevena ( el, Γρεβενά, ''Grevená'', , rup, Grebini) is a town and municipality in Western Macedonia, northern Greece, capital of the Grevena regional unit. The town's current population is 13,374 citizens (2011). It lies about from At ...

and

Kozani Kozani ( el, Κοζάνη, ) is a city in northern Greece, capital of Kozani (regional unit), Kozani regional unit and of Western Macedonia. It is located in the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia, in the northern part of the Aliakmona ...

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 Imathia ( el, Ημαθία ) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Macedonia, within the geographic region of Macedonia. The capital of Imathia is the city of Veroia. Administration The regional unit Imath ...

and Pieria regional units). Its

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

is .

Name

The name (in Greek) is composite and derives from (salt, sea) and (anvil). In

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

Haliakmon was one of the

Potamoi The Potamoi ( grc-gre, Ποταμοί, "Rivers") are the gods of rivers and streams of the earth in Greek mythology. Mythology The river gods were the 3000 sons of the great earth-encircling river Oceanus and his wife Tethys and the brothers of ...

, who were sons of

Oceanus In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titans (mythology), Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethy ...

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 Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

(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 (

)''. Ottoman Turks called the river Ince-Karasu (narrow-black water), a name still used in

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

. The Eastern South Slavic 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

marsh A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found a ...

es. 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 ...

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 The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the ...

. In its upper course it flows generally towards the east, and turns southeast near

. 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 ...

mountains, and turns northeast near the village Paliouria. It feeds the large artificial

Lake Polyfytos A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

, 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 ...

, 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, Gree ...

, Argos Orestiko, Neapoli, Paliouria, Velventos 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 "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the ...

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

, pike, eel, 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 The garfish (''Belone belone''), also known as the garpike or sea needle, is a pelagic, oceanodromous needlefish found in brackish and marine waters of the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Black, and Baltic Seas. Description The ...

, red porgy,

saddled seabream The saddled seabream (''Oblada melanura''), also called the saddle bream or oblade, is a species of fish of the family Sparidae. It is monotypic in the genus ''Oblada''. Description It has a fuse-shaped blueish-silver body, with a black spot nea ...

, angler, bream,

mediterranean sand smelt The Mediterranean sand smelt, ''Atherina hepsetus'', is a species of fish in the family Atherinidae. Description The body is rather long, slender and moderately flattened. The mouth is protrusible, directed upward with small teeth; the head and ...

, sand steenbras, mullus barbatus, freshwater bass,

tuna A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae ( mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max le ...

salmon Salmon () is the common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of ...

, Mediterranean moray, weever, longfin gurnard, dogfish, dusky grouper,

school shark The school shark (''Galeorhinus galeus'') is a houndshark of the family Triakidae, and the only member of the genus ''Galeorhinus''. Common names also include tope, tope shark, snapper shark, and soupfin shark. It is found worldwide in temperate ...

and

turbot The turbot (''Scophthalmus maximus'') is a relatively large species of flatfish in the family Scophthalmidae. It is a demersal fish native to marine or brackish waters of the Northeast Atlantic, Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is an ...

. 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 Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...

. Μost of these kinds of fish have no commercial value but only biological, since they support the

food web A food web is the natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical representation of what-eats-what in an ecological community. Another name for food web is consumer-resource system. Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one ...

. Fish found in Haliakmon, like

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 coast ...

, 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 An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

. In the place where the river flows into the sea, there has been formed over the years an extended Delta 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 mullet The flathead grey mullet (''Mugil cephalus'') is an important food fish species in the mullet family Mugilidae. It is found in coastal tropical and subtropical waters worldwide. Its length is typically . It is known with numerous English names ...

s 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 su ...

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 an ...

'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, whic ...

s are produced in the Haliakmon-Axios (Vardar) Delta. Aliki Kitrous is an area of 254 hectares, where 15–20.000 tons of

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quanti ...

are produced per year. Many kinds of birds have been observed in Haliakmon's region. They use it for accommodation and overwintering, like the

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a fo ...

s, 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 wingsp ...

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 in ...

, 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 importan ...

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 metr ...

) the ''Canalovii''. According to Julius Caesar, the Haliacmon formed the line of demarcation between

Macedon Macedonia (; grc-gre, Μακεδονία), also called Macedon (), was an ancient kingdom on the periphery of Archaic and Classical Greece, and later the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece. The kingdom was founded and initially ruled b ...

and

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

. 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, W ...

, 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.Dimit ...

, and

. In the time of

Herodotus Herodotus ( ; grc, , }; BC) was an ancient Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria ( Italy). He is known for ...

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 re ...

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 cit ...

; 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 A wind gap (or air gap) is a gap through which a waterway once flowed that is now dry as a result of stream capture. A water gap is a similar feature, but one in which a waterway still flows. Water gaps and wind gaps often provide routes which ...

between the Haliacmon and Loudias watersheds that is the probable ancient course of the Haliacmon. It was the domain of the eponymous river god Haliacmon.

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)