Polygyros
Polygyros is a town and municipality in Central Macedonia, Greece. It is the capital of Chalkidiki. Polygyros town is built in the shape of an amphitheatre on a plateau on the south west side of the mountain Cholomontas, it is south of Greek National Road 16. Polygyros is located NE of Nea Moudania, NW of Sithonia and SW of Arnaia; the municipal unit has a population of 10,721 inhabitants and a land area of 470.933 km². Other large villages in the municipal unit are Kalýves Polygýrou, Ólynthos, Taxiárchis, Vrástama. There are different speculations about the origin of Polygyros' name; some claim. Others believe that the words poly and ieros have given the present name, because of an ancient temple in the area. An old landowner, named Polyaros, offers a possible etymology. According to another possible etymology, the name derives from poly and gyros, possible due to the town's amphitheatric position; the municipality Polygyros was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 4 former municipalities, that became municipal units: Anthemountas Ormylia Polygyros ZervochoriaThe municipality has an area of 947.417 km2, the municipal unit 470.933 km2.
Some situate in the broader area of modern Polygyros the ancient city of Apollonia. Apollonia was one of the 32 cities, under the leadership of the Olynthus, constituted the Koinon ton Chalkideon; the Koinon was destroyed in 379 BCE by the Spartans, while in 348 BCE Philipp II of Macedon annexed the whole Chalcidice into the Macedonian Kingdom. In 168 BCE Chalcidice was subjected by the Romans; the town of Polygyros is first mentioned in a medieval imperial document, chryssovoulon, of Eastern Roman Emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates about 1080 CE. In 1430, as the rest of the Eastern Roman Empire, Polygyros was conquered by the Ottomans and belonged to the Sanjak of Thessaloniki. On 17 May 1821 the people of Polygyros rose against the Ottoman authority and managed, temporarily, to expel the Ottoman guard. Polygyros, such as other villages of the peninsula, were burned by the Ottomans. Many residents of Polygyros took part in the 1854's unsuccessful revolutionary movement against the Ottomans. On November 2, 1912 the Greek army, as one of the winners of the First Balkan War, entered Polygyros and incorporated the town in the Greek State.
Polygyros is famous for its carnival celebrations. A nearby location called Panagia is the setting of a famous religious celebration on August 15. Cultural societies are active in the fields of folk music and dance. Classic and modern music is cultivated in the municipal conservatory. There is a Folklore Museum in the town, opened in 1998. Niki is the name of Polygyros' football club, which participates in the Greek National Fourth Division Professional League. AOP is participant in the Third National Basketball Division; the Archaeological Museum of Polygyros has exhibits containing findings from all over Halkidiki and referring to paleolithical and neolithical age, archaic, classic and Roman period. Archaeological Museum of Polygyros Christos Zabounis, editor List of settlements in Chalkidiki Official website Official website of the Prefecture of Chalkidiki
Akanthos (Greece)
Akanthos was an ancient Greek city on the Athos peninsula, on the narrow neck of land between the sacred mountain and the mainland, to the northwest of the Xerxes Canal. It was founded in the 7th century BCE as a colony of Andros, itself a colony of Chalcis in Euboea. Chalcidice was multi-cultural; the archaeology of the region suggests that some Hellenes were there. The site is on the most eastern peninsula of Chalcidice; the ancient city extended along a ridge comprising three hills bordering the south-east of modern Ierissos about 0.6 km from it. The ridge dominates the landscape, it is terminated on the north by the beach between Ierissos and its harbor. The modern city is about equal in size to the ancient site, now wooded. Remains of an 8 m high circuit wall, a citadel, Hellenistic buildings are visible embedded in the terrain, along with a deserted Byzantine church and two post Byzantine churches; the name selected for the colony is the name of a plant. The plant would most be Acanthus mollis, which abounds on the Mediterranean rocky coasts.
Pomponius Mela says. The plant, a thorny, flowering perennial, was known for its medicinal powers, it is the model for the plant design used on Corinthian capitals. The prosperous and successful city in the course of time became a part of the Byzantine Empire. In the 6th century CE the empire declined due to devastation of its population by plague, starting about 541; the peninsula was abandoned by the Hellenes only to be repopulated by Slavs. In the 9th century the Byzantines recovered and reoccupied the peninsula, bringing in Hellenes and Armenians from Asia Minor, they were protected in Roman-style fortified towns called kastra. One of these was Erissos, placed over the site of Akanthos. After it became the site of a Bishopric, Erissos was changed to Ierissos by analogy with Hieros, "sacred."There is an etymology for Erissos as follows. The Marble of Ladiava, an inscription from Ierissos, reports the presence of a large community of Roman merchants, 27 BCE–14 CE, they chose to call Akanthos, etymologically "spiny," Echinia, "hedgehog."
In the course of time Echinia came to mean "sea urchin,", spiny. The Roman colony disappeared along with the Greek city in the 6th century; when the Byzantines returned they chose the Latin form of the word, which became Erissos by palatalization of the "c." In 1430 Thessaloniki fell to Murad II, bringing Macedonia under the Ottoman Empire. Before it had changed hands among the Ottomans, the Byzantines, the Republic of Venice, since the late 14th century; the native population fleeing the city were brought back by the Turkish army. Subsequently the city was augmented by the forced transplantation of Yuruk tribesmen from Anatolia, semi-nomads who kept sheep, practicing transhumance over the grasslands of Halkidiki, The region had been deforested during the Byzantine era; the Ottoman rulers left Halkidiki in the hands of the monastic communities of Athos, whom they encouraged and allowed to rule. Despite vigorous revolutionary activity in the Greek War of Independence of 1821, Macedonia, of which Halkidiki was a part, was forced to remain under the empire.
In 1912 the Kingdom of Greece combined with other Balkan states to liberate Macedonia from Ottoman rule in the Balkan Wars. Macedonia was divided among the victors, Greece receiving south Macedonia, with Thessaloniki and Halkidiki. In 1922 the Turkish people abolished the empire in favor of the Turkish Republic. In the 1923 population exchange consequent on the border settlement with Greece, Ierissos received an influx of Anatolian Greeks. In 1932 a major earthquake devastated the village beyond re-use, it became "old Ierissos" as opposed to "new Ierissos" subsequently constructed in the valley below the hill. Unknown to the builders, the valley floor is the site of an ancient cemetery in use since before the founding of Akanthos, not abandoned until the 17th century CE; the new Ierissos is a flourishing city, architecturally in the style of the 1930s. The municipal arrangements of modern Greece have changed a number of times since then. More the fact that Stagira, named for ancient Stagira, is in the vicinity stimulated the creation of the municipality, Stagira-Akanthos.
In 2011 the name was changed to Aristotelis in honor of Aristotle. The Akanthos site and monuments are known as the Archaeological Site of Akanthos. Excavation and administration are conducted by, are under the authority of, the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports through its departments; the relevant departments, or ephorates, are under the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, under the General Directorate of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, under the General Secretary of Culture, under the Minister of Culture and Sports. The department with the responsibility of guidance and oversight of the site is the Ephorate of Antiquity of Chalcidice and Mount Athos, which has a list of responsibilities including the monasteries, the sites of Akanthos and Stageira; these assignments supersede previous arrangements, which might be cited in literature and on the Internet, such as 16th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities,Thessaloniki, no more. The archaeological ephorates of Macedonia began in the Balkan Wars, starting in 1912.
There was considerable international interest in the antiquities of Macedonia. The Ottoman Empire was supporting
History of Macedonia (ancient kingdom)
The kingdom of Macedonia was an ancient state in what is now the Macedonian region of northern Greece, founded in the mid-7th century BC during the period of Archaic Greece and lasting until the mid-2nd century BC. Led first by the Argead dynasty of kings, Macedonia became a vassal state of the Achaemenid Empire of ancient Persia during the reigns of Amyntas I of Macedon and his son Alexander I of Macedon; the period of Achaemenid Macedonia came to an end in 479 BC with the ultimate Greek victory against the second Persian invasion of Greece led by Darius the Great and the withdrawal of Persian forces from the European mainland. During the age of Classical Greece, Perdiccas II of Macedon became directly involved in the Peloponnesian War between Classical Athens and Sparta, shifting his alliance from one city-state to another while attempting to retain Macedonian control over the Chalcidice peninsula, his reign was marked by conflict and temporary alliances with the Thracian ruler Sitalces of the Odrysian Kingdom.
He made peace with Athens, which formed an alliance with Macedonia that carried over into the reign of Archelaus I of Macedon. His reign brought peace and financial security to the Macedonian realm, yet his little-understood assassination left the kingdom in peril and conflict; the turbulent reign of Amyntas III of Macedon witnessed devastating invasions by both the Illyrian ruler Bardylis of the Dardani and the Chalcidian city-state of Olynthos, both of which were defeated with the aid of foreign powers, the city-states of Thessaly and Sparta, respectively. Alexander II invaded Thessaly but failed to hold Larissa, captured by Pelopidas of Thebes, who made peace with Macedonia on condition that they surrender noble hostages, including the future king Philip II of Macedon. Philip II came to power when his older brother Perdiccas III of Macedon was defeated and killed in battle by the forces of Bardylis. With the use of skillful diplomacy, Philip II was able to make peace with the Illyrians, Thracians and Athenians who threatened his borders.
This allowed him time to reform the Ancient Macedonian army, establishing the Macedonian phalanx that would prove crucial to his kingdom's success in subduing Greece, with the exception of Sparta. He enhanced his political power by forming marriage alliances with foreign powers, destroying the Chalcidian League in the Olynthian War, becoming an elected member of the Thessalian and Amphictyonic Leagues for his role in defeating Phocis in the Third Sacred War. After the Macedonian victory over a coalition led by Athens and Thebes at the 338 BC Battle of Chaeronea, Philip established the League of Corinth and was elected as its hegemon in anticipation of commanding a united Greek invasion of the Achaemenid Empire under Macedonian hegemony. However, when Philip II was assassinated by one of his bodyguards, he was succeeded by his son Alexander III, better known as Alexander the Great, who invaded Achaemenid Egypt and Asia and toppled the rule of Darius III, forced to flee into Bactria where he was killed by one of his kinsmen, Bessus.
This pretender to the throne was executed by Alexander, yet the latter succumbed to an unknown illness at the age of 32, whose death led to the Partition of Babylon by his former generals, the diadochi, chief among them being Antipater, regent of Alexander IV of Macedon. This event ushered in the Hellenistic period in West Asia and the Mediterranean world, leading to the formation of the Ptolemaic and Attalid successor kingdoms in the former territories of Alexander's empire. Macedonia continued its role as the dominant state of Hellenistic Greece, yet its authority became diminished due to civil wars between the Antipatrid and nascent Antigonid dynasty. After surviving crippling invasions by Pyrrhus of Epirus, Seleucus I Nicator, the Celtic Galatians, Macedonia under the leadership of Antigonus II of Macedon was able to subdue Athens and defend against the naval onslaught of Ptolemaic Egypt in the Chremonidean War. However, the rebellion of Aratus of Sicyon in 351 BC led to the formation of the Achaean League, which proved to be a perennial problem for the ambitions of the Macedonian kings in mainland Greece.
Macedonian power saw a resurgence under Antigonus III Doson, who defeated the Spartans under Cleomenes III in the Cleomenean War. Although Philip V of Macedon managed to defeat the Aetolian League in the Social War, his attempts to project Macedonian power into the Adriatic Sea and formation of a Macedonian–Carthaginian Treaty with Hannibal alarmed the Roman Republic, which convinced a coalition of Greek city-states to attack Macedonia while Rome focused on defeating Hannibal in Italy. Rome was victorious in the First and Second Macedonian War against Philip V, defeated in the Cretan War by a coalition led by Rhodes. Macedonia was forced to relinquish its holdings in Greece outside of Macedonia proper, while the Third Macedonian War succeeded in toppling the monarchy altogether, after which Rome placed Perseus of Macedon under house arrest and established four client state republics in Macedonia. In an attempt to dissuade rebellion in Macedonia, Rome imposed stringent constitutions in these states that limited their economic growth and interactivity.
However, Andriscus, a pretender to the throne claiming de
Aristotle
Aristotle was a philosopher during the Classical period in Ancient Greece, the founder of the Lyceum and the Peripatetic school of philosophy and Aristotelian tradition. Along with his teacher Plato, he is considered the "Father of Western Philosophy", his writings cover many subjects – including physics, zoology, logic, aesthetics, theatre, rhetoric, linguistics, economics and government. Aristotle provided a complex synthesis of the various philosophies existing prior to him, it was above all from his teachings that the West inherited its intellectual lexicon, as well as problems and methods of inquiry; as a result, his philosophy has exerted a unique influence on every form of knowledge in the West and it continues to be a subject of contemporary philosophical discussion. Little is known about his life. Aristotle was born in the city of Stagira in Northern Greece, his father, died when Aristotle was a child, he was brought up by a guardian. At seventeen or eighteen years of age, he joined Plato's Academy in Athens and remained there until the age of thirty-seven.
Shortly after Plato died, Aristotle left Athens and, at the request of Philip II of Macedon, tutored Alexander the Great beginning in 343 BC. He established a library in the Lyceum which helped him to produce many of his hundreds of books on papyrus scrolls. Though Aristotle wrote many elegant treatises and dialogues for publication, only around a third of his original output has survived, none of it intended for publication; the fact that Aristotle was a pupil of Plato contributed to his former views of Platonism, following Plato's death, Aristotle developed an increased interest in natural sciences and adopted the position of immanent realism. Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship, their influence extended from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages into the Renaissance, were not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle's zoological observations found in his biology, such as on the hectocotyl arm of the octopus, were disbelieved until the 19th century.
His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, studied by medieval scholars such as Peter Abelard and John Buridan. Aristotle's influence on logic continued well into the 19th century He influenced Islamic thought during the Middle Ages, as well as Christian theology the Neoplatonism of the Early Church and the scholastic tradition of the Catholic Church. Aristotle was revered among medieval Muslim scholars as "The First Teacher" and among medieval Christians like Thomas Aquinas as "The Philosopher", his ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics, such as in the thinking of Alasdair MacIntyre and Philippa Foot. In general, the details of Aristotle's life are not well-established; the biographies written in ancient times are speculative and historians only agree on a few salient points. Aristotle, whose name means "the best purpose" in Ancient Greek, was born in 384 BC in Stagira, about 55 km east of modern-day Thessaloniki.
His father Nicomachus was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. Both of Aristotle's parents died when he was about thirteen, Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian. Although little information about Aristotle's childhood has survived, he spent some time within the Macedonian palace, making his first connections with the Macedonian monarchy. At the age of seventeen or eighteen, Aristotle moved to Athens to continue his education at Plato's Academy, he remained there for nearly twenty years before leaving Athens in 348/47 BC. The traditional story about his departure records that he was disappointed with the Academy's direction after control passed to Plato's nephew Speusippus, although it is possible that he feared the anti-Macedonian sentiments in Athens at that time and left before Plato died. Aristotle accompanied Xenocrates to the court of his friend Hermias of Atarneus in Asia Minor. After the death of Hermias, Aristotle travelled with his pupil Theophrastus to the island of Lesbos, where together they researched the botany and zoology of the island and its sheltered lagoon.
While in Lesbos, Aristotle married Hermias's adoptive daughter or niece. She bore him a daughter, whom they named Pythias. In 343 BC, Aristotle was invited by Philip II of Macedon to become the tutor to his son Alexander. Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. During Aristotle's time in the Macedonian court, he gave lessons not only to Alexander, but to two other future kings: Ptolemy and Cassander. Aristotle encouraged Alexander toward eastern conquest and Aristotle's own attitude towards Persia was unabashedly ethnocentric. In one famous example, he counsels Alexander to be "a leader to the Greeks and a despot to the barbarians, to look after the former as after friends and relatives, to deal with the latter as with beasts or plants". By 335 BC, Aristotle had returned to Athens. Aristotle conducted courses at the school for the next twelve years. While in Athens, his wife Pythias died and Aristotle became involved with Herpyllis of Stagira, who bore him a son whom he named after his father, Nicomachus.
According to the Suda, he had an erômenos, Palaephatus of Abydus. This period in Athens, between 335 and 323 BC, is when Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his works, he wrote many dialogues. Those works that have survived are in treatise form and were not
Eretria
Eretria is a town in Euboea, facing the coast of Attica across the narrow South Euboean Gulf. It was an important Greek polis in the 6th/5th century BC, mentioned by many famous writers and involved in significant historical events. Excavations of the ancient city began in the 1890s and have been conducted since 1964 by the Greek Archaeological Service and the Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece; the first evidence for human activity in the area of Eretria are pottery shards and stone artifacts from the late Neolithic period found on the Acropolis as well as in the plain. No permanent structures have yet been found, it is therefore unclear. The first known settlement from the Early Helladic period was located on the plain. A granary and several other buildings, as well as a pottery kiln, have been found so far; this settlement was moved to the top of the Acropolis in the Middle Helladic period because the plain was flooded by the nearby lagoon. In the Late Helladic period, the population dwindled and the remains found so far have been interpreted as an observation post.
The site was abandoned during the Greek Dark Ages. The oldest archaeological finds date the foundation of the city to the 9th century BC, it was founded as the harbour of Lefkandi, located 15 km to the west. The name comes from the Greek ἐρέτης, erétēs, the verb ἐρέσσειν/ἐρέττειν, eréssein/eréttein, to row, which makes Eretria the "City of the Rowers". Eretria's population and importance increased at the same time as Lefkandi began to decline in importance from c. 825 BC onwards. The natural superiority of Eretria's harbour and the importance of trade to the Euboeans is one explanation for this gradual population migration from Lefkandi to Eretria; the earliest surviving mention of Eretria was by Homer, who listed Eretria as one of the Greek cities which sent ships to the Trojan War. In the 8th century BC, Eretria and her near neighbour and rival, were both powerful and prosperous trading cities. Eretria controlled the Aegean islands of Andros and Ceos, they held territory in Boeotia on the Greek mainland.
Eretria was involved in the Greek colonisation and founded the colonies of Pithekoussai and Cumae in Italy together with Chalcis. At the end of the 8th century BC, however and Chalcis fought a prolonged war for control of the fertile Lelantine plain. Little is known of the details of this war; the city was destroyed and Eretria lost her lands in Boeotia and her Aegean dependencies. Neither Eretria nor Chalcis again counted for much in Greek politics; as a result of this defeat, Eretria turned to colonisation. She planted colonies on the coast of Macedon, in Italy and Sicily; the Eretrians were Ionians. When the Ionian Greeks in Asia Minor rebelled against Persia in 499 BC, Eretria joined Athens in sending aid to the rebels, because Miletus supported Eretria in the Lelantine War; the rebels burned Sardis, but were defeated and the Eretrian general Eualcides was killed. Darius made a point of punishing Eretria during his invasion of Greece. In 490 BC the city was burned by the Persians under the admiral Datis.
Attribute to the resistance during the siege,all the male citizens were killed, while women and children were deported to Arderikka in Susiana,Persia and forced into slavery barefoot. The temple of Apollo, built around 510 BC, was destroyed by the Persians, and Parts of a pediment were found including the torso of an Athena statue. Eretria took part with 600 hoplites in the Battle of Plataea; the ancient writer Plutarch mentions a woman of Eretria, "who was kept by Artabanus" at the Persian court of Artaxerxes, who facilitated the audience that Themistocles obtained with the Persian king. During the fifth century BC the whole of Euboea became part of the Delian League, which became the Athenian Empire. Eretria and other cities of Euboea rebelled unsuccessfully against Athens in 446 BC. During the Peloponnesian War Eretria was an Athenian ally against her Dorian rivals Sparta and Corinth, but soon the Eretrians, along with the rest of the Empire, found Athenian domination oppressive. When the Spartans defeated the Athenians at the Battle of Eretria in 411 BC, the Euboean cities all rebelled.
After her eventual defeat by Sparta in 404 BC, Athens soon recovered and re-established her hegemony over Euboea, an essential source of grain for the urban population. The Eretrians rebelled again in 349 BC and this time the Athenians could not recover control. In 343 BC supporters of Philip II of Macedon gained control of the city, but the Athenians under Demosthenes recaptured it in 341 BC; the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, in which Philip defeated the combined armies of the Greeks, marked the end of the Greek cities as independent states. However, under Macedonian rule Eretria experienced a new period of prosperity which lasted until the 3rd century as attested by many inscriptions, by extensions to the west and south sections of the walls and by many other private and public new buildings including the circus. From 318-312BC King Cassander lived at Eretria and commissioned the painter Philoxenus of Eretria to paint the battle of Issus, of which the famous Alexander Mosaic in the Naples museum is a copy and the wall paintings in Phillip's tomb at Vergina are connected.
From 304BC Demetrius I granted the city partial autonomy. During this time the city
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea located between the Greek and Anatolian peninsulas i.e. between the mainlands of Greece and Turkey. In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea and Black Sea by the Dardanelles and Bosphorus; the Aegean Islands are within the sea and some bound it on its southern periphery, including Crete and Rhodes. The sea was traditionally known as the Archipelago, but in English the meaning of Archipelago has changed to refer to the Aegean Islands and to any island group. In ancient times, there were various explanations for the name Aegean, it was said to have been named after the Greek town of Aegae. A possible etymology is a derivation from the Greek word αἶγες – aiges = "waves", hence "wavy sea", cf. αἰγιαλός, hence meaning "sea-shore". The Venetians, who ruled many Greek islands in the High and Late Middle Ages, popularized the name Archipelago, a name that held on in many European countries until the early modern period.
In some South Slavic languages the Aegean is called White Sea. The Aegean Sea covers about 214,000 square kilometres in area, measures about 610 kilometres longitudinally and 300 kilometres latitudinally; the sea's maximum depth is 3,543 metres, east of Crete. The Aegean Islands are found within its waters, with the following islands delimiting the sea on the south: Kythera, Crete, Kasos and Rhodes; the Aegean Islands, which all belong to Greece, can be divided into seven groups: Northeastern Aegean Islands East Aegean Islands Northern Sporades Cyclades Saronic Islands Dodecanese CreteThe word archipelago was applied to the Aegean Sea and its islands. Many of the Aegean Islands, or chains of islands, are extensions of the mountains on the mainland. One chain extends across the sea to Chios, another extends across Euboea to Samos, a third extends across the Peloponnese and Crete to Rhodes, dividing the Aegean from the Mediterranean; the bays and gulfs of the Aegean beginning at the South and moving clockwise include on Crete, the Mirabello, Almyros and Chania bays or gulfs, on the mainland the Myrtoan Sea to the west with the Argolic Gulf, the Saronic Gulf northwestward, the Petalies Gulf which connects with the South Euboic Sea, the Pagasetic Gulf which connects with the North Euboic Sea, the Thermian Gulf northwestward, the Chalkidiki Peninsula including the Cassandra and the Singitic Gulfs, northward the Strymonian Gulf and the Gulf of Kavala and the rest are in Turkey.
The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Aegean Sea as follows: On the South. A line running from Cape Aspro in Asia Minor, to Cum Burnù the Northeast extreme of the Island of Rhodes, through the island to Cape Prasonisi, the Southwest point thereof, on to Vrontos Point in Skarpanto, through this island to Castello Point, the South extreme thereof, across to Cape Plaka, through Crete to Agria Grabusa, the Northwest extreme thereof, thence to Cape Apolitares in Antikithera Island, through the island to Psira Rock and across to Cape Trakhili in Kithera Island, through Kithera to the Northwest point and thence to Cape Santa Maria in the Morea. In the Dardanelles. A line joining Kum Kale and Cape Helles. Aegean surface water circulates in a counterclockwise gyre, with hypersaline Mediterranean water moving northward along the west coast of Turkey, before being displaced by less dense Black Sea outflow; the dense Mediterranean water sinks below the Black Sea inflow to a depth of 23–30 metres flows through the Dardanelles Strait and into the Sea of Marmara at velocities of 5–15 cm/s.
The Black Sea outflow moves westward along the northern Aegean Sea flows southwards along the east coast of Greece. The physical oceanography of the Aegean Sea is controlled by the regional climate, the fresh water discharge from major rivers draining southeastern Europe, the seasonal variations in the Black Sea surface water outflow through the Dardanelles Strait. Analysis of the Aegean during 1991 and 1992 revealed three distinct water masses: Aegean Sea Surface Water – 40–50 metres thick veneer, with summer temperatures of 21–26 °C and winter temperatures ranging from 10 °C in the north to 16 °C in the south. Aegean Sea Intermediate Water – Aegean Sea Intermediate Water extends from 40–50 m to 200–300 metres with temperatures ranging from 11–18 °C. Aegean Sea Bottom Water – occurring at depths below 500–1000 m with a uniform temperature and salinity; the current coastline dates back to about 4000 BC. Before that time, at the peak of the last ice age sea levels everywhere were 130 metres lower, there were large well-watered
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