The Struma or Strymónas ( bg, Струма ; el, Στρυμόνας ; tr, (Struma) Karasu , 'black water') is a river in

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

and

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...

. Its

ancient Ancient history is a time period from the beginning of writing and recorded human history to as far as late antiquity. The span of recorded history is roughly 5,000 years, beginning with the Sumerian cuneiform script. Ancient history cov ...

name was Strymṓn (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Στρυμών ). Its drainage area is , of which in Bulgaria, in Greece and the remaining in North Macedonia and Serbia. It takes its source from the

Vitosha Mountain Vitosha ( bg, Витоша ), the ancient ''Scomius'' or ''Scombrus'', is a mountain massif, on the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. Vitosha is one of the symbols of Sofia and the closest site for hiking, alpinism and skiing. Conven ...

, runs first westward, then southward, forming a number of gorges, enters

territory at the Kula village. In Greece it is the main waterway feeding and exiting from

Lake Kerkini Lake Kerkini ( gr, Λίμνη Κερκίνη - Limni Kerkini) is an artificial reservoir in Central Macedonia, Greece that was created in 1932, and then redeveloped in 1980, on the site of what was previously an extremely extensive marshland. L ...

, a significant centre for migratory wildfowl. The river flows into the

Strymonian Gulf The Strymonian or Strymonic Gulf (), also known as the Orfano Gulf (), is a branch of the Thracian Sea—itself part of the Aegean Sea—lying east of the Chalcidice peninsula and south of the Serres regional unit. It was formerly known as the Gul ...

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea ; tr, Ege Denizi ( Greek: Αιγαίο Πέλαγος: "Egéo Pélagos", Turkish: "Ege Denizi" or "Adalar Denizi") is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans ...

, near

Amphipolis Amphipolis ( ell, Αμφίπολη, translit=Amfipoli; grc, Ἀμφίπολις, translit=Amphipolis) is a municipality in the Serres regional unit, Macedonia, Greece. The seat of the municipality is Rodolivos. It was an important ancient Gr ...

in the Serres regional unit. The river's length is (of which in Bulgaria, making it the country's fifth-longest and one of the longest rivers that run solely in the interior of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

. Parts of the river valley belong to a Bulgarian (Pirin Macedonia)

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

-producing area, more significant in the past than nowadays; the southern part of the Bulgarian section is an important

wine region This list of wine-producing regions catalogues significant growing regions where vineyards are planted. Wine grapes mostly grow between the 30th and the 50th degree of latitude, in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Grapes will sometimes ...

. The Greek portion is a valley which is dominant in agriculture, being Greece's fourth-biggest valley. The tributaries include the Konska River, the Dragovishtitsa, the Rilska River, the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa, the

Sandanska Bistritsa The Sandanska Bistritsa ( bg, Санданска Бистрица) is a river in south-western Bulgaria, a left tributary of the Struma. The river is 33 km long and drains the south-western sections of the Pirin mountain range. The Sandans ...

, the

Strumitsa Strumica ( mk, Струмица, ) is the largest city2002 census results
in English and Macedon ...

, the Pirinska Bistritsa and the Angitis.

Etymology

The river's name comes from Thracian , derived from

Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo ...

''*'' 'stream', akin to English ''stream'', Old Irish 'river', Polish 'stream', Lithuanian ''straumuo'' 'fast stream', Bulgarian () 'water flow', Greek () 'stream', Albanian 'water flow', 'rain'. The name ''Strymón'' was a

hydronym A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As ...

in ancient

Greek mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...

, referring to a mythical Thracian king that was drowned in the river. Strymón was also used as a personal name in various regions of

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...

during the 3rd century BC.

History

Persian fort at Eion seen from Amphipolis

In 437 BC, the

ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

city of

was founded near the river's entrance to the Aegean, at the site previously known as ('Nine roads'). When

Xerxes I Xerxes I ( peo, 𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ; grc-gre, Ξέρξης ; – August 465 BC), commonly known as Xerxes the Great, was the fourth King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of D ...

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

crossed the river during his invasion in 480 BC he buried alive nine young boys and nine maidens as a sacrifice to the river god. The forces of

Alexander I of Macedon Alexander I of Macedon ( el, Ἀλέξανδρος ὁ Μακεδών), known with the title Philhellene (Greek: φιλέλλην, literally "fond/lover of the Greeks", and in this context "Greek patriot"), was the ruler of the ancient Kingdom of ...

defeated the remnants of Xerxes' army near Ennea Hodoi in 479 BC. In 424 BC the Spartan general

Brasidas Brasidas ( el, Βρασίδας, died 422 BC) was the most distinguished Spartan officer during the first decade of the Peloponnesian War who fought in battle of Amphipolis and Pylos. He died during the Second Battle of Amphipolis while winning ...

after crossing the entire Greek peninsula sieged and conquered Amphipolis. According to the ancient sources, the river was navigable from its mouth up to the ancient (and today dried)

Cercinitis lake Cercinitis or Kerkinitis ( el, Κερκινίτιδα) was a lake in ancient Edonis, in the lower valley of the river Strymon. It was located within today's Serres regional unit and is identified with the currently dried Achinos Lake. Accordin ...

, which also favored the navigation; and thus was formed in antiquity an important waterway that served the communication between the coasts of

and the Thracian hinterland and almost to the city of

Serres Sérres ( el, Σέρρες ) is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northe ...

.Dimitrios C. Samsaris, ''Historical Geography of Eastern Macedonia during the Antiquity'' (= ''Makedonikí bibliothíki'', 49). Society of Macedonian Studies, Thessaloniki 1976, p. 16 ff. (in Greek
online text
).
Dimitrios C. Samsaris, ''A History of Serres (in the Ancient and Roman Times)''. Thessaloniki 1999, pp. 55–60 (in Greek
website of the municipality of Serres
). The decisive

Battle of Kleidion The Battle of Kleidion ( grc-gre, Κλειδίον; or Clidium, after the medieval name of the village of Klyuch, "(the) key"; also known as the Battle of Belasitsa) took place on July 29, 1014, between the Byzantine Empire and the Bulgarian Emp ...

was fought close the river in 1014 between the

Bulgarians Bulgarians ( bg, българи, Bǎlgari, ) are a nation and South Slavic ethnic group native to Bulgaria and the rest of Southeast Europe. Etymology Bulgarians derive their ethnonym from the Bulgars. Their name is not completely underst ...

under Emperor

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bib ...

and the Byzantines under Emperor

Basil II Basil II Porphyrogenitus ( gr, Βασίλειος Πορφυρογέννητος ;) and, most often, the Purple-born ( gr, ὁ πορφυρογέννητος, translit=ho porphyrogennetos).. 958 – 15 December 1025), nicknamed the Bulgar S ...

and determined the fall of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Eur ...

four years later. In 1913, the

Greek Army The Hellenic Army ( el, Ελληνικός Στρατός, Ellinikós Stratós, sometimes abbreviated as ΕΣ), formed in 1828, is the land force of Greece. The term ''Hellenic'' is the endogenous synonym for ''Greek''. The Hellenic Army is the ...

was nearly surrounded in the Kresna Gorge of the Struma by the

Bulgarian Army The Bulgarian Land Forces ( bg, Сухопътни войски на България, Sukhopŭtni voĭski na Bŭlgariya, lit=Ground Forces of Bulgaria) are the ground warfare branch of the Bulgarian Armed Forces. The Land Forces were establishe ...

during the

Second Balkan War The Second Balkan War was a conflict which broke out when Bulgaria, dissatisfied with its share of the spoils of the First Balkan War, attacked its former allies, Serbia and Greece, on 16 ( O.S.) / 29 (N.S.) June 1913. Serbian and Greek armies ...

, and the Greeks were forced to ask for armistice. The river valley was part of the

Macedonian front The Macedonian front, also known as the Salonica front (after Thessaloniki), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers to aid Kingdom of Serbia, Serbia, in the autumn of 191 ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The ship , which took Jewish refugees out of

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and was torpedoed and sunk in the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

, causing nearly 800 deaths, was named after the river.

Gallery

File:StrumaatKresnaGorge.jpg, Struma at Kresna Gorge Image:Struma Winter.jpg, Struma near the city of

Blagoevgrad Blagoevgrad ( bg, Благоевград ) is а town in Southwestern Bulgaria, the administrative centre of Blagoevgrad Municipality and of Blagoevgrad Province. With a population of almost inhabitants, it is the economic and cultural centre ...

in winter File:Εκβολές Στρυμόνα.jpg, Strymon estuary File:Loewe von Amphipolis (2018).jpg, Lion of Amphipolis;

Via Egnatia The Via Egnatia was a road constructed by the Romans in the 2nd century BC. It crossed Illyricum, Macedonia, and Thracia, running through territory that is now part of modern Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey as a con ...

, west side of Strymonas File:Greek Army Strymon WWI.jpg, Greek soldiers at Strymon during WWI Struma river mouth.jpg, Struma river mouth Strymonriver.jpg, Struma river from the bridge next to the Lion of Amphipolis facing the beach of Ofryni Beach (Tuzla)

Honour

Struma Glacier Struma Glacier ( bg, ледник Струма, lednik Struma, ) is a glacier in eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica situated south of lower Kaliakra Glacier and north of Huron Glacier. Bounded by Melnik Rid ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60 ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 1 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest cont ...

is named after Struma River.

Notes

External links

*
Livius.org: Strymon
{{Authority control Rivers of Bulgaria Rivers of Greece International rivers of Europe Landforms of Kyustendil Province Landforms of Pernik Province Landforms of Sofia City Province Landforms of Serres (regional unit) Geography of Macedonia (region) Landforms of Central Macedonia