Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia (; , "Makedonía" ) is a geographic and former administrative region of Greece, in the southern Balkans. Macedonia is the largest and Greek region, with a population of 2.38 million in 2017. The region is highly mountainous, with most major urban centres such as Thessaloniki and Kavala being concentrated on its southern coastline. Together with Thrace, and sometimes also Thessaly and Epirus, it is part of Northern Greece. It also contains Mount Athos, an autonomous monastic region of Greece.
Geography of the Republic of Macedonia
The environment is preserved in areas impractical and sparsely populated. In addition, the country has three major national parks, created under the Yugoslav regime of 1948–1958. The parks of Pelister, Mavrovo and Galičica cover an area of and allow for the protection of natural areas by their exceptional geological setting, their fauna and flora. The ornithological reserve of Ezerani, north of Lake Prespa, is 2,000 hectares big and is home to sixty animals protected by the Bern Convention.