Greece Investment Immigration Comprehensive Guide to Greece: The largest port city and second-largest city in northern Greece, and the capital of the Thessaloniki regional unit. Located in the western part of the Chalkidiki Peninsula, it borders the Thermaic Gulf. It has a population of 406,000, or 800,000 including the suburbs. It features a Mediterranean climate with mild winters and hot summers. The city has developed rapidly since World War II. Its economy is closely linked to its port. As a hub for sea and land transportation, it has shipping routes connecting to ports across the Eastern Mediterranean. The port includes a dedicated zone for Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia). The city contains numerous ancient Greek ruins, including 4th-century brick-and-marble arches, as well as city and fortress walls. Famous landmarks in the city include the 33-meter-high White Tower built in 1430, the Greek Orthodox Cathedral, the Greek military regional headquarters, and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, founded in 1925, which is world-renowned for its philosophy, theology, and archaeology programs.
Thessaloniki is located in northern Greece, at the northwest corner of the Chalkidiki Peninsula, at the northeastern end of the Thermaic Gulf, an inner bay formed by the northern Aegean Sea (100 km long, 65 km at its widest point). Thessaloniki itself has a Mediterranean climate, with dry and rainless summers. The area north of Thessaloniki has a continental climate with cold winters.
Thessaloniki was once the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Macedon. In 315 BC, King Cassander of Macedon built the city of Thessaloniki on or near the site of the ancient city of Therma, incorporating 26 surrounding villages. He named it after his wife, Thessalonike (the half-sister of Alexander the Great), who was born on the day her father, Philip II, achieved a military victory; he named his newborn daughter after the Thessalians who helped him win. The name Thessaloniki means "Victory of the Thessalians."
Thessaloniki developed rapidly. As early as the 2nd century BC, the first walls were built to enclose a large square. Like all other Greek cities of that time, it was an autonomous part of the Macedonian Kingdom, with its own city council. The King could intervene in the city's internal affairs through the city council.