Θεσσαλονίκη

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Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē or Thessaloníki)

Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē),¹ is a city at the head of the Thermaïkós² Gulf, the northwest arm of the Aegean Sea.³ It is within the Decentralized Administration of Makedonía⁴ and Thrákē,⁵ in Ελλάς (Ellás).⁶ The metropolitan area has 825 thousand residents,⁷ with 789 thousand⁸ in the city itself. The city was important in the spread of early Christianity during the Roman Empire⁹ and rose to the fore in early medieval times. When the Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks, it became known as Selânik. In the early 20th century it became part of the Basíleion t&etilde;s 'Elládos (Kingdom of Greece) and formally regained its old name.

Five early Christian churches, two of them with mosaic materpieces in their rotundas, are honored as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.¹⁰ A guard tower, Lefkos Pyrgos, from the Ottoman period is also famous as is the OTE telecommunications tower (249 feet). The tallest conventional building is the Hotel Rotunda (116 feet).¹¹

The nearby Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē) International Airport is one of the nation's busiest.¹²

Name	Year	Population	Political entity
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	622 CE	40,000¹³	Rhomania or Romania (the Byzantine Empire)
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	900 CE	50,000¹³	Rhomania or Romania (the Byzantine Empire)
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	1000 CE	40,000¹³	Rhomania or Romania (the Byzantine Empire)
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	1100 CE	50,000¹³	Rhomania or Romania (the Byzantine Empire)
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	1300 CE	50,000¹³	Rhomania or Romania (the Byzantine Empire)
Selânik	1400 CE	40,000¹⁴	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Selânik	1500 CE	40,000¹⁴	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Selânik	1600 CE	50,000¹⁴	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Selânik	1700 CE	40,000¹⁴	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Selânik	1800 CE	62,000¹³	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Selânik	1900 CE	140,000¹³	Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye (Ottoman Empire)
Θεσσαλονίκη (Thessaloníkē)	2017 CE	825,000⁷	Ελλάς (Ellás or Greece)

Historical maps

map of Makedonía and Thrákē Decentralized Administration, 1600-1800 CE

map of Makedonía and Thrákē Decentralized Administration, 1900 CE

map of Ellás, 2000 CE showing Thessaloníkē

External references

Rotunda mosaic (Christian theme), Church of Saint David, Thessaloníkē, Makedonía, Ellás

Footnotes

1. Also transliterated as Thessaloníki; Thessalonica or Salonica in English.
2. Thermaic in English.
3. The Aegean is a northward extension of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, and through the Turkish Straits the connection between the Mediterranean and the Black seas.
4. Macedonia in English.
5. Also transliterated as Thráki. Thrace in English.
6. Also called Ελλάδα (Elláda); Greece in English.
7. Metropolitan estimate for 2017 from db-worldua, downloaded February 14, 2018 from http://www.demographia.com/.
8. 2011 figure from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_in_Greece, accessed March 21, 2018.
9. Paul (or Saul) of Tarsus wrote two epistles to the Thessalonians that are part of the Christian Bible.
10. UNESCO, World Heritage Sites (Firefly Books, 2010).
11. Information about the buildings, other than the Christian churches, comes from emporis.com, accessed May 8, 2018. The rotary kiln of the Titan Industrial Cement Factory reaches 394 feet.
12. 2017 table from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_busiest_airports_in_Greece, accessed March 27, 2018.
13. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Tables of the World's Largest Cities."
14. Chandler, op. cit.: 'Cities of Europe' tables.