"The place where I was born..... " a Thessaloniki Travel Page by GeoDenia

<b>DESTINATION FACTS

Population: 1.000.000
Country: Greece
Time Zone: GMT/UTC +2 hours
Telephone area code: 2310

Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece with a population of 1.000.000 inhabitants, is one of the oldest cities in Europe. It stretches over 11km in a bowl formed by low hills facing a bay that opens into the Gulf Thermaikos. It was founded about 315 B.C., on a site of old prehistoric settlements going back to 2300 B.C., by Cassander, King of Macedonia, and was named after his wife, Thessaloniki, sister of Alexander The Great. Since then, Thessaloniki has become the chief city of Macedonia and its most important commercial port. In Roman times it was visited by Saint Paul, who preached the new religion, and who later addressed his two well-known epistles (the oldest written documents of Christian literature) to the Christians of Thessaloniki.</b>