The modern Vardar is thought to derive from an earlier *Vardários, which may ultimately derive fromProto-Indo-European (PIE) *(s)wordo-wori- "black water".[3][4] The nameVardários (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by theAncient Greeks in the 3rd century BC. The same name was widely used in theByzantine era.[5]
Vardar/Vardarios may be a translation of (or otherwise have a similar meaning as)Axios, which may be Thracian and may have meant "not-shining" from PIE *n.-sk(e)i (cf. Avestanaxšaēna "dark-coloured").[6] The oldest known name of the river,Axios, is mentioned byHomer (Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849)[7] as the home of thePaeonians allies ofTroy.Pjetër Bogdani would use the formAsi, an earlier Albanian-language name for the river.[1]
This same hypothetical ThracianAxio- meaning "dark, not-shining" is theorized to be found in the name of a city at the mouth of the Danube, called Axiopolis in Greek andAxíopa (perhaps again meaning just "dark water") in Thracian, which may later have been translated into Slavic asCernavodă, also meaning "black water".[5]
The Vardar basin comprises two-thirds of theterritory ofNorth Macedonia. The valley features fertile lands in thePolog region, aroundGevgelija and in theThessaloniki regional unit. The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The superhighwaysGreek National Road 1 in Greece and M1 and E75 run within the valley along the river's entire length to near Skopje.
The river was very famous during theOttoman Empire and remains so in modern-dayTurkey as the inspiration for many folk songs, of which the most famous is Vardar Ovasi. It has also been depicted on the coat of arms of Skopje, which in turn is incorporated in the city's flag.[9]
Project to construct the Danube-Vardar-Aegean Canal
A proposal to construct a canal connecting the Morava river valley with the Vardar, and hence linking the Danube to the Aegean Canal, has been a dream for a long time.[10]Le Figaro published a project of Athens and Belgrade on 28.08.2017. The Greek-Serbian proposal made in Beijing is Pharaonic: 651 km. A project worth 17 billion.[11]
TheVardaris orVardarec is a powerfulprevailing northerlyravine wind which blows across the river valley inGreece as well as inNorth Macedonia. At first it descends along the "canal" of the Vardar valley, usually as a breeze. When it encounters the high mountains that separate Greece from North Macedonia, it descends the other side, gathering a tremendous momentum and bringing cold conditions to the city ofThessaloniki and the Axios delta. Somewhat similar to themistral wind ofFrance, it occurs when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over theAegean Sea, as is often the case in winter.
.JPG)
.JPG)
