The modern Vardar is thought to derive from an earlier *Vardários, which may ultimately derive from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *(s)wordo-wori- "black water".[3][4] The name Vardários (Βαρδάριος) was sometimes used by the Ancient Greeks in the 3rd century BC. The same name was widely used in the Byzantine 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. Avestan axšaēna "dark-coloured").[6] The oldest known name of the river, Axios, is mentioned by Homer (Il. 21.141, Il. 2.849)[7] as the home of the Paeonians allies of Troy. Pjetër Bogdani would use the form Asi, an earlier Albanian-language name for the river.[1]
This same hypothetical Thracian Axio- 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 and Axíopa (perhaps again meaning just "dark water") in Thracian, which may later have been translated into Slavic as Cernavodă, also meaning "black water".[5]
The Vardar basin comprises two-thirds of the territory of North Macedonia. The valley features fertile lands in the Polog region, around Gevgelija and in the Thessaloniki regional unit. The river is surrounded by mountains elsewhere. The superhighways Greek 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 the Ottoman Empire and remains so in modern-day Turkey 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.[8]
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.[9] 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.[10]
Vardaris wind
The Vardaris or Vardarec is a powerful prevailing northerlyravine wind which blows across the river valley in Greece as well as in North 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 of Thessaloniki and the Axios delta. Somewhat similar to the mistral wind of France, it occurs when atmospheric pressure over eastern Europe is higher than over the Aegean Sea, as is often the case in winter.
Gallery
Map of the northwestern part of North Macedonia including the source of the Vardar
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