Vardar

The Vardar is the river flowing from Thessaloniki to the Aegean Sea. It's 388 kilometers (241 miles) long, including 76 kilometers (47 miles) in Greece, and it drains a 25,000-square-kilometer region (9,653 sq mi). With this length, it belongs to the top 3 longest rivers in Greece. The river's highest depth is 4 meters (13 ft). Vrutok, a few kilometers southwest of Gostivar in North Macedonia, is where the river begins. It flows through Gostivar, Skopje, and Veles before draining into the Aegean Sea near Gevgelija, Polykastro, and Axioupoli ("town on the Axiós") in Central Macedonia, west of Thessaloniki in northern Greece.

The Vardar basin covers two-thirds of North Macedonia's land area. In the Polog region, around Gevgelija, and in the Thessaloniki regional unit, there are fertile farmland. Mountains surround the river on all sides. Within the valley, the superhighways Greek National Road 1 in Greece, as well as M1 and E75, travel the length of the river until near Skopje.

The river was well-known under the Ottoman Empire and is still well-known in modern-day Turkey as the source of many folk songs, the most renowned of which is Vardar Ovasi. It is also depicted on Skopje's coat of arms, which is then incorporated into the city's flag.

The river is particularly useful for irrigation in the rich plains surrounding Thessaloniki. Agricultural operations, on the other hand, have had detrimental consequences, such as sedimentation. To control water flow, certain irrigation and reservoirs have been built along the river's path. For ecological reasons, a major portion of the river's basin is protected in Greece.

Length: 388 km (241 mi)