Halkidiki Today
Big peninsula of Macedonia between two bays, the Thermaikos and the Strymonikos, with three smaller peninsulas: Kassandra (Flegra or Pallini) to the west, Sithonia (Loggos or Loggou) in the middle, between the Toroneos and the Siggitikos Gulf and Mount Athos (Coast or Athos) to the east.
These three prongs contribute Halkidiki' s unique schematic particalrity, but also the biggest length of coasts (550 kms. approximately) from all the land prefectures of Greece. Halkidiki is a semi-mountainous region: the flat grounds occupy a 25% piece, the semi-mountainous a 51% and the mountainous a 24%. Its main mountains are: Holomontas (1.165 m. height), Stratonikon (823 m. height), Itamos (753 m. height) and Athos (2.033 m. height).
Rivers do not exist, however the biggest torrents (as Havrias, Olynthios, Anthemous etc.) and scattered water biotopes maintain the flora and fauna of the region. It is a blessed place and dowered with rare natural beauties. It combines wonderfully the light blue of the sea and the green of the land. Here the marvelous alternations of rock-creek, shore-hill, sandy beach-pine tree, bay-mountain, convulse the visitor and prompt him to remain and enjoy the dew of the transparent sea and be revived in its splendid shady forests.
The permanent residents of Halkidiki are less than 100.000 (92.117 at the inventory of 1991), however each summer they are multiplied astonishingly. Innumerable Greeks and foreigners from allover the world arrive in the summer at its roughly 440 hotels of - plenty of them almost 1.000 beds each - with totally more than 37.000 beds, its 40 organised campings, its innumerable rooms for rent, of many thousands of beds, its organised camps, all its coasts and a lot of regions in the inland.
14 municipalities exist in the Prefecture of Halkidiki.
Mount Athos, with its 20 Monasterys and 1.536 residents popular) is an autonomous region.