INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA:

Day 1,404, 12:27 • Published in North Macedonia North Macedonia • by Macedonian brah


1.The greatest conqueror in the human history was Alexander The Great Macedonian.He overthrew the Persian Empire,defeated the Greek city-states, carried Macedonian arms to India. Already in his lifetime the subject of fabulous stories, he later became the hero of a full-scale legend bearing only the sketchiest resemblance to his historical career.

2.Ohrid and Lake Ohrid were accepted as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.The Ohrid lake itself is over 3 million years old. It has over 200 endemic species not found on any other place on the planet. It is said that Ohrid has 365 churches,one for each day of the year. All its basilicas and luxurious mosaics, valuable archaeological sites and an antique theatre confirm that Ohrid(called Lychnidos : the City of Lights) was a cultural centre of the ancient era.

3.According to NASA, Macedonia's Kokino is fourth on the list of oldest observatories on this planet. The number one is Abu Simbel (Egypt) , Stonehenge (England), Angkor Wad (Cambodia). Take a moment to connect the dots on a map.

4.The cave Peshna in Makedonski Brod is described in the New York Times as identical to the 'imagined' caves in the Lord of the Rings.

5.The highest quality of opium is the Macedonian. Second is Pakistan's opium who has seven morph units. Third is the Columbian with around 3.5 M.E. The Macedonian opium has an incredible 14 M.E., doubling that of Pakistan.

6.The most famous of all Roman roads has its largest part in Macedonia Via Egnatia.

7.Parts of Jesus' Crucifiction cross are layed in the foundations of the monasteries of St Bogorodica Precista (Kicevo), St. Jovan Bigorski, and St. Georgij Pobedonosec in Rajcica (Debar).

8.Mother Theresa was born in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, in 1910. The father of the modern Turkish nation Mustafa Kemal Ataturk was born in Salonika and went to the Military Academy in Bitola, the second largest city in the Republic of Macedonia.

9.The father of the modern military engineering is Dijad, from Alexander the Great period. He invented the catapult among many other things.

10.The first Church in Europe is the Macedonian Church. 50 years after Jesus, Paul had a vision of a Macedonian man asking for help, as written in the Bible. Paul does come to Macedonia, and pays a visit to Philipi, Ber, Stobi and Ohrid. His symbolic trip if looked on Macedonian map, forms a cross.Lydia,the first person recorded to convert to Christianity in Europe,a Macedonian woman from the town of Thyatira who in nearby Philipi was selling RED textile fabric. The Red color has always been prominent in the Macedonian folklor, materials and fabric, on the flags of all uprisings throughout the centuries.

11.One of the Titanic Survivors was a Macedonian. Stojko Dodolovski, from the village of Chucher (Skopje area), made a last second purchase of a ticket to the Titanic from a British priest. When the ship started sinking Stojko jumped into the ocean. He swam towards few of the rescue boats, but was not allowed to climb aboard. Stojko stayed calm and floated on the ocean until one of the rescue boats came back to look for survivors, several hours later. Stojko was one of the 12 survivors picked up.

12.The 120 stone dolls in Kuklica, Kratovo, who are 10 million years old, were almost accidentally flooded by the Macedonian Government in an attempt to create an artificial lake in the area. The legend behind the stone dolls who are lined up next to one another is that they were guests at a wedding, but were turned into stone, cursed by a forsaken bride.

13.Macedonia has a rich artistic life. Some 260 exhibitions of work by Macedonian artists and 65 exhibitions of guests from foreign countries are organized each year. The works of the Macedonian painters Nikola Martinoski, Lazar Lichenoski, Petar Mazev, Dimitar Kondovski, Petar Hadzhi Boshkov, Vangel Naumovski, Vasko Tashkovski and Gligor Chemerski have been exhibited in the best known art centres of the world.

14.The Lesnovski Monastery was the First Monarchy in the Balkans. Until the 1940's the Lesnovski Monastery had the largest library in Southern Europe. The books were later taken out and distributed throughout Macedonia.

15.Several international cultural events and festivals are held each year in Macedonia. The best known are the Ohrid Summer festival of music and drama, in which renowned musicians from around the world take part, and the Struga Poetry Evenings which every year gather some 200 poets from about 50 countries. Ohrid is also the place where the Balkan Festival of Folk Song and Dance is held, and Veles organizes traditional meetings of writers from the Balkan countries in honour of the founder of modern Macedonian literature, Kocho Racin. Skopje is host to the World Cartoon Gallery, the May Opera Evenings and the Open Youth Theatre festival