PREFECTURE OF PELLA

The prefecture boarders north with Skopia, east with the prefectures of Kilkis and Thessaloniki, west with Florina`s one and south with the prefectures of Imathia and Kozani.

This beautiful place of Macedonia is full of legends, traditions and great history. The area was inhabited since the prehistorical years. Here, there were lying the ancient provinces of Bottiaia, Imathia, Almopia and Eordaia. According to the reports Aristotle and Plutarch, the young men and women that the Athenians were sending every year to Crete, prey for the legendary Minotaur, were not killed but they were living as slaves in the kingdom of king Minoas. The descendants of these young people, sent by the Cretans to inhabit the area of Delfi, settled in Bottiaia at last.
At the beginning of the 7th BC century, the Argians Macedonians arrived in the same fertile area and the Bottiaians took refuge in Chalkidiki. Pella and Edessa unfolded to most significant cities. Around BC 400, the capital of Macedonia was transferred from Aeges to Pella. In the years of the Roman Empire, Egnatia Street was passing through the area of Pella and this was the reason for the city's prosperity. In the Byzantine Times, the city came up against frequent invasions and destroyals, which ruined the Byzantine monuments of the area. In the years of the Turks` domination, many Turks were settled in the area. Significant battles, which signified the beginning of the struggle against the conquerors and the liberation of the Greek nation, occurred in the area of the lake of Giannitsa.

Palia Pella and Nea Pella are two villages of the area of Giannitsa, lying in a distance of 4km from each other and approximately 48km from Edessa. In the area between these two villages there are the ruins of the ancient city of Pella, which, from the beginning of the 4th BC century till BC 168, was the most significant political, economical and administrative centre of the Macedonian state. The systematic excavations of the Greek Archaeological Committee, which began since 1957 and are still continued, have brought to light an important part of the city's ruins and many other significant things which attract the tourists.

Edessa: Capital of the prefecture with 18.832 inhabitants. Built on the foot of Vermio Mountain, it has beautiful view on the plain, much green, gardens full of flowers and abundant waters. It is one of the most beautiful cities of Macedonia. In 1977, the excavations in Vergina proved that this city has no relationship with the city of Aeges, the ancient Macedonian capital, as it was believed in older times. Edessa, as the excavations at Logos proved, was a significant city already since the Hellenistic Times, although its greatest bloom was noticed in the Roman and the Paleochristian Years, fact that is probably related to the existence of Egnatia Street as well as the decline of Pella.

Giannitsa: The biggest city of the prefecture with 29.364 inhabitants, 40km south-east of Edessa. Built on the fertile plain which resulted after the drying of the Homonynous Lake (1930), it is an important agricultural and cattle-raising centre.

Aridea: Small town, 26km north of Edessa, famous of its fruits and its red peppers. Its name is owed to the homonymous ancient city, of Almopia, which had been named Aridea in honour of Philip the second the Arideos, half-brother of Great Alexander.