Strymon

Strymon may refer to:

Strymon (theme)

The Theme of Strymon (Greek: θέμα Στρυμόνος) was a Byzantine military-civilian province (theme) located in modern Greek Macedonia, with the city of Serres as its capital. Founded probably by the mid-to-late 9th century, its history as an administrative history was chequered, being variously split up and/or united with neighbouring themes.

Location

The theme covered the region between the Strymon and Nestos rivers, between the Rhodope mountains and the Aegean Sea. The area was strategically important. Not only did the theme control the exits to the mountain passes from the Slav-dominated interior of the Balkans into the coastal plains of Macedonia, but it was transversed by the great Via Egnatia highway, which linked Byzantine-controlled Thrace with Thessalonica, the Empire's second-largest city. The region was peopled predominantly with Slavs from the late 7th century on, and retained a significant Slavic population at least until the 11th century. Its main cities were Serres, Philippi, Christoupolis and Chrysopolis, while it may also initially have included the cities of Xanthi and Mosynopolis east of the Strymon.

Struma (river)

The Struma or Strymónas (Bulgarian Струма, pronounced [ˈstruma], Greek Στρυμόνας [striˈmonas], Turkish (Struma) Karasu 'black water') is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. Its ancient name was Strymōn (Greek: Στρυμών [stryˈmɔːn]). Its catchment area is 10,800 km². It takes its source from the Vitosha Mountain in Bulgaria, runs first westward, then southward, enters Greek territory at the Kula village. In Greece it is the main waterway feeding and exiting from Lake Kerkini, a significant centre for migratory wildfowl. The river flows into the Strymonian Gulf in Aegean Sea, near Amphipolis in the Serres regional unit. The river's length is 415 km (of which 290 km in Bulgaria, making it the country's fifth longest).

Parts of the river valley belong to a Bulgarian coal-producing area, more significant in the past than nowadays. The Greek portion is a valley which is dominant in agriculture, being Greece's fourth biggest valley. The tributaries include the Rila River, the Dragovishtitsa, the Blagoevgradska Bistritsa, the Konska River, the Sandanska Bistritsa and the Angitis.