Train and Rail Travel in Macedonia Northern Greece Page 9 (see Greece train map)

Thessaloniki - Ormenion (Bulgaria)

This 615km/381mile standard gauge single track railway is the longest main line in Greece, and was the main line of the Ottoman 'Chemin de Fer Oriental' built in the late 19th century. It is a route that include marvelous scenery as well as passage through an area with peoples and cultures not found in other parts of Greece.

Thessaloniki -Serres Trains leave the main line about 8km northwest of Thessaloniki and then branch off to the north through the villages of Lahanokipi and Latomio, with the Gallikos river to the left at first, until the train crosses it just before the Philadhelphia station. In this area, near the village of Xirohori a 9-12million year old skull, of Ouropithekos Makeddhonikos was found. There's a military cemetery near Kilkis, with the graves of 659 British soldiers who died in 1917-18 during WWI . The victory for the Greek and Allied armies over the Germans and Bulgarians was near here in the May, 1918 Battle of Skra Ravine.  

The modern town of Kilkis has around 15,000 inhabitants, and is a modern concrete city on the edge of a large plain. There is a Byzantine fort here called Gyinaikokastro because it was defended by women ('gyinaika', the Greek word for 'woman' ). There's a small archaeological museum in Kilkis.

The rail line heads towards Lake Doirani, past rolling meadows, with the Kerkini mountains up ahead, these the border with FYROM. Some people are reminded of the Scottish Highlands by the terrain here, with large herds of cattle grazing (something not commonly seen in Greece). There's a British memorial before the Doirani station , which consists of a 12meter high obelisk guarded by two crouching lions, with the names of 2,160 soldiers who fell in WWI without known graves inscribed on panels attached to the obelisk; a nearby Military Cemetery contains 1,300 graves (875 of them British).

The rail station serves a large lake divided between Greece and FYROM, the town in the part belonging to FYROM. The water is 11meters deep, and is fished by locals. Other FYROM villages are visible from here. The train then crosses the foothills of the Kerkini. The summit of this mountain, at 2032 meters, has snow on it well into June, and forms the border with Bulgaria and FYROM.

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