THERMAI, GULF OF

Modern Greek Thermaks Klpos, English Thermaic Gulf large gulf of the Aegean Sea in northeastern Greece between Thessaly, Macedonia, and the Chalcidice peninsula. Up to 60 mi (100 km) long northwestsoutheast and about 40 mi wide at its broadest point, at the isthmus of Kassndra, it narrows in the extreme northeast into the Klpos Thessalonkis (Saloniki Bay), which is about 10 mi long by 5 mi wide. At the head of the bay lies the port of Thessalonki, the second largest city and industrial centre of Greece. The gulf's mountainous or marshy coasts provide few natural harbours, and there are no major cities or ports. Parala (Vromskala), the port of Katerni, a tobacco centre of the plain of Piera, is an exception. Na Mikhanina is a small port on the Chalcidice. Just north of Parala, an area of large salt pans, is the Tozla Marsh, the silted-up harbour of ancient Pydna, near which the Romans defeated the last Macedonian king, Perseus, in 168 BC. The Klpos Thessalonkis receives the Galliks Potams (river) and a secondary stream of the Chalcidice; the northern basin of the Gulf of Thrmai receives three major rivers: the Vardar (Axis); the Loudhis, which has been completely canalized, and the Alikmon. The Pinis debouches into the Gulf of Thrmai just north of kra (cape) Dhermats. A ship canal (completed 1937) through the isthmus of Kassndra links the Thermaks with the Klpos Kassndras to the east.