Kajmakčalan (Kaimakchalan), or Kaimaki or Kaimaktsalan or Voras ( el, Καϊμακτσαλάν or or , mk, Каjмакчалан, translit=Kajmakčalan), is a mountain on the border between

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 ...

and

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 ...

. It is the southernmost and highest peak, ,"Óros Voras, Greece/North Macedonia"
Peakbagger.com. Retrieved 2012-02-19. of a range known in Greek as the Voras Mountains and in Macedonian as Nidže. The frontier between the two countries runs across the summit. It is the third-highest peak in Greece after Mytikas and

Smolikas Mount Smolikas ( el, Σμόλικας; rup, Smolcu) is a mountain in the Ioannina regional unit, northwestern Greece. At a height of 2,637 metres above sea level, it is the highest of the Pindus Mountains, and the second highest mountain in Gre ...

and the fifth-highest in North Macedonia.

Etymology

The word "Kaimaktsalan" is of

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed exten ...

origin inspired by its white, snowy peak: ''kaymakçalan'' means '

kaymak Kaymak, sarshir, or qashta/ashta ( fa, سَرشیر ) ( ar, قشطة or ar, قيمر ) is a creamy dairy food similar to clotted cream, made from the milk of water buffalo, cows, sheep, or goats in Central Asia, some Balkan countries, som ...

beater'. "Kaymak" in Turkish refers to a dairy product similar to clotted cream.

Geology

The peak consists of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

and

mica Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into extremely thin elastic plates. This characteristic is described as perfect basal cleavage. Mica is ...

Climate

Kajmakčalan has a subarctic climate ( Dfc) with short, cool summers and long, cold winters.

History

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, in September 1916, the

Battle of Kajmakčalan A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and forc ...

between

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hung ...

n and

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 ...

n troops took place at Kajmakčalan and around the adjacent peaks, resulting in a Serbian victory. There is a small church and crypt for the Serbian soldiers who died in the battle. Near the top of the mountain, on the Greek side, there is a small church named ''Saint Peters'' (Sveti Petar in Serbian), the peak itself is called, besides Kajmakčalan, ''Profitis Ilias'' ( el, Εκκλησία Προφήτης Ηλίας).http://www.serbia.com/srpski/o-srbiji/istorija/srbija-u-prvom-svetskom-ratu/osmatracnica-sa-kajmakcalana/

References

External links