Macedonia is a country in the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe.
Macedonia’s official name is the Republic of Macedonia.
Macedonia is bordered by: Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west.
Official language is Macedonian.
As of 1 January 2016, the population of Macedonia was estimated to be 2,080,258 people.
Skopje is the capital of the Republic of Macedonia, in the center of the Balkan Peninsula. Over time it has experienced Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman rule.
Macedonia is largely mountainous, with many peaks rising above the tree line at 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) above sea level. The highest elevation is at Mount Korab at 2,752 meters (9,030 feet) above sea level.
With more than one million years under its belt, Lake Ohrid is Europe’s oldest.Also, Lake Ohrid is the deepest lake of the Balkans and one of deepest in eourope, with a maximum depth of 288 meters (940 feet) and a mean depth of 155 meters (508 feet).
Situated on the shores of Lake Ohrid, the town of Ohrid is one of the oldest human settlements in Europe. Built mainly between the 7th and 19th centuries, it has one of the oldest Slav monastery (St Pantelejmon) and more than 800 Byzantine-style icons dating from the 11th to the end of the 14th century.
Saint Panteleimon monastery in Ohrid is attributed to Clement of Ohrid, a disciple of Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius. Archaeologists have come to believe that the monastery was the site where the first students of the Glagolitic alphabet (used to translate the Bible into Old Church Slavonic) were taught.
Saint John the Theologian, Kaneo or simply Saint John at Kaneo is one of the most magnificent churches in all of Macedonia stands right above a small fishing settlement, on a cliff rising up from Lake Ohrid; St. Jovan Kaneo is a combination of Byzantine and Armenian architectural styles.
The Church of St. Sophia is located in the city of Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia. The church is one of the most important monuments of Macedonia, housing architecture and art from the Middle Ages.
The Millennium Cross is a 66-meters (217 feet) high cross situated on the top of the Vodno Mountain in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia. It was constructed to serve as a memorial of 2,000 years of Christianity in Macedonia and the world.It is the 4th tallest cross in the world.
Samuel’s Fortress is a fortress in the old town of Ohrid, Republic of Macedonia. It was the capital of the First Bulgarian Empire during the rule of Tsar Samuel at the turn of the 10th century.
The cave Peshna in Makedonski Brod was described by New York Times as looking “exactly like Helm’s Deep from Lord of the Rings”.According to the speleologists, Peshna is a cave with biggest cave entrance on the Balkan – the flooring of the opening is 30 meters high.
According to NASA, Kokino is the fourth oldest astronomic observatory in the world.It is a Bronze Age archaeological site situated between about 1010 and 1030 meters ( 3313 and 3379 feet) above sea level on the Tatićev Kamen summit and covers an area of about 90 by 50 meters (164 by 295) .
There are three National parks in Republic of Macedonia: Pelister, Mavrovo and Galičica.
The lavish forests of the country are comprised of 210 families, 920 genera and 3,700 plant species while its rich fauna includes bears, wild boars, wolves, squirrels, chamois and deer.
The Lake Mavrovo is the largest artificial lake in Macedonia. It lies at an altitude of over 1,000 meters (3,280) and has half submerged church at the center of it, which is a prime tourist attraction.
Mother Teresa was born in what is now Macedonia’s capital city, Skopje, on 26th August 1910. Back then, Skopje was known as Üsküb and was a city in the Ottoman Empire.
The country’s name derives from the ancient Greek Kingdom of Macedonia; which was named after the ancient Macedonians.
Alexander the Great, who was king of the former Kingdom of Macedonia, was the first world-size conqueror who extended his empire across Greece and Persia to India and Egypt. During his time, the Kingdom of Macedonia was the most powerful state in the world; but after his death, the empire fell apart and it became the first Roman province in 146 B.C.
Since becoming an independent nation in 1991, Macedonia has had two flags.The first version [pic. below] was based on a symbol found on ancient tombstones discovered in 1977 in the town of Vergina. However, Vergina is in Greek Macedonia and Greece decided to claim that they owned the copyright to use the symbol.
Macedonia got the membership of United Nations in 1993 though under the provisional reference of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) due to the ongoing conflict with Greece over its name.
Macedonia is the first country in the world to have full access to wireless broadband.