macmodgeo

GEOGRAPHIC MACEDONIA is

the geographic area bounded

to the north by the Skopska Crna Gora and the Shar Planina mountains;
to the east by the Rila and Rhodope mountains;
to the south by the Aegean coast around Thessalonika, Mount Olympus and the Pindus mountains; and
to the west by the lakes of Ohrid and Prespa.

The area forms a a geographic unit based around the Vardar/Axios, the Struma/Strimon and the Mesta/Nestos river valleys, and is generally referred to as geographic Macedonia. It comprises approximately 67,000 square kilometers and is currently divided between the

Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM),

Greece and

Bulgaria.

This geographic area if often subdivided either into

two units <note>

lower Macedonia comprising the large coastal area and equating more with modern-day Greek Macedonia, and

upper Macedonia relating to the higher valleys in the north

or into three units equating to the political division of geographic Macedonia in the Balkan was. These three units have been named either after the respective country -i.e. Yugoslav Macedonia or Greek Macedonia

or after the main geographic features of each

Vardar Macedonia for the portion which went to what became Yugoslavia and is now temporarily named FYROM

Aegean Macedonia <note> for the Greek portion; and

Pirin Macedonia for the Bulgarian part.

In this later terminology there is no expression for the small slice of geographic Macedonia which went to Albania.

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The piece has been lifted from H.Poulton's "Who are the Macedonians" (1995), pp.1-2, for the simple reason that the description is brief and straightforward. It may probably be found elsewhere.

To proceed to the geographical description of 'historical Macedonia' click here.