Nestos (river)

The Nestos (Greek: Νέστος) or Mesta (Bulgarian: Места), formerly the Mesta Karasu (Ottoman Turkish), is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. It rises in the Rila Mountains and flows into the Aegean Sea near the island of Thasos. It plunges down towering canyons toward the Aegean Sea through mostly metamorphic formations. At the end, the main stream spreads over the coastal plain of Chrysoupolis and expands as a deltaic system with freshwater lakes and ponds forming the Nestos delta.The length of the river is 230 km, of which 126 km in Bulgaria and the rest in Greece. It forms some gorges in Rila and Pirin.

The Mesta's longest tributary is the Dospat River (Bulgarian: Доспат; Greek: Δεσπάτης, Despatis). The banks of the river are covered mainly by deciduous trees that extend into halfway between Bulgaria and Greece where it forms the modern boundary of Greek Macedonia and Thrace, as well as the boundary between the Kavala and the Xanthi regional units, having first crossed the Drama regional unit. The river later forms a delta to the north where swamplands, wetlands and a lagoon once existed except in the east.

Nestos (municipality)

Nestos (Greek: Νέστος) is a municipality in the Kavala regional unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. The seat of the municipality is the town Chrysoupoli. It was named after the river Nestos.

Municipality

The municipality Nestos was formed at the 2011 local government reform by the merger of the following 3 former municipalities, that became municipal units:

Province

The province of Nestos (Greek: Επαρχία Νέστου) was one of the provinces of the Kavala Prefecture. It had the same territory as the present municipality. It was abolished in 2006.

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