Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki is a big city in Greece. It lies along the sea.

It is very old. People have lived there for more than 2,000 years!

Thessaloniki is a city in northern Greece, on the Thermaic Gulf, a bay of the Aegean Sea. At the 2021 census, 319,044 people lived in the municipality of Thessaloniki and 747,867 in Greater Thessaloniki, the group of municipalities around it. Its wider built-up area is the second largest in Greece, after Athens.

UNESCO says the city was founded in 315 BC and became a provincial capital and sea port.

Hellenic Statistical Authority (via City Population), census of 22 October 2021: Municipality of Thessaloniki 319,044 (2011: 325,182); Greater Thessaloniki, the sum of its municipalities, 747,867 (2011: 754,566). City Population's Greek city table ranks the Thessaloniki agglomeration second (802,392 in 2021, on its wider definition), after Athens.

UNESCO (World Heritage property 456): 'Founded in 315 BC, the provincial capital and sea port of Thessalonika was one of the first bases for the spread of Christianity.' Wikidata places the city on the Thermaic Gulf, a bay of the Aegean Sea.

Look at the round stone tower by the water! Behind it are trees, and a long row of tall white buildings.

The sea in front is deep blue, and a big hill rises behind the city.

This photo, taken on 7 June 2007, looks across the water at Thessaloniki's seafront from the port. A long row of apartment buildings with balconies faces the deep blue gulf, and on the right the round, stone White Tower rises above green trees. Behind the city, houses climb a slope, and a large dark hill fills the left of the sky.

Wikidata describes the White Tower as a fortified tower from the 16th century, about 34 meters tall. The street along the seafront is Leoforos Nikis.

Commons: 'Thessaloniki View of waterfront', 7 June 2007, own work by the uploader Ωριγένης, GFDL / CC BY-SA 3.0; categories 'Apartment buildings in Thessaloniki', 'Leoforos Nikis (Thessaloniki)' and 'White Tower (Thessaloniki)'; camera location about 1.27 km WNW of Wikidata's point for the tower. The image is 1,198 by 891 pixels.

Wikidata: White Tower of Thessaloniki, a fortified tower and museum, inception 16th century, height 33.9 m.

Thessaloniki has very old buildings. Inside are mosaics, pictures made of many tiny pieces.

UNESCO calls the mosaics in three of Thessaloniki's oldest buildings, the round Rotunda, Saint Demetrius and Hosios David, some of the great masterpieces of early Christian art. Over many centuries painters also covered the walls of the city's churches with frescoes.

Today the White Tower is a museum as well as a landmark, Wikidata says. Aristotelous Square, named after the ancient Greek thinker Aristotle, is a large square in the city center.

UNESCO: wall paintings, mosaics and frescoes in Thessaloniki's monuments trace Byzantine monumental painting from its beginnings (the Rotunda, Saint Demetrius, Hosios David) through the Comnenian period to the late Byzantine 'Palaeologan Renaissance'; the city was an important artistic center from its foundation and throughout the Byzantine period.

Wikidata: White Tower of Thessaloniki, instance of fortified tower and museum; Aristotelous Square, a square in Thessaloniki named after Aristotle.