In today’s world, the geopark lies in the heart of the Greek province of West Macedonia, 150 km west of Thessaloniki, and 400 km north of Athens. In the deep past, this area linked the tectonic plates of Europe and Africa across the Tethys Ocean.
Our Geopark hosts an amazing geodiversity, certainly among the wealthiest on Earth. Its history begins in the Precambrian, a time nearly a billion years ago before there was abundant life, and spans the period when our fossil ocean, the Tethys, was born. Named for the Titan of Greek mythology, the Tethys Ocean stretched from modern-day Britain to China. Our mountains chronicle the geologic events of the birth of the Tethys Ocean about 250 million years ago, of its expansion and the creation of new oceanic lithosphere, and of its later destruction when the continents of Africa and Europe collided. Glaciers and rivers sculpted and abraded the remains of Tethys to form a spectacular array of landscapes, each hosting a unique ecosystem with numerous endemic species of plants, fungi, and insects.
The human history of this region is intimately linked with its geologic history, as its terrain and resources influenced the livelihoods and folklore of the West Macedonian people from the paleolithic to the present day. Internationally, this area is known in the scientific community as one of the pivotal locales in the development of plate tectonic theory.
