Eight Greek Cities from Kastoria to Heraklion in Order of Recorded Latitude, North to South

Kastoria is the northernmost stop, at a recorded latitude of about 40.52 degrees north. Its page says the city stands on a promontory on the western shore of Lake Orestiada, that its name means place of beavers, and that it has long been a center of the fur trade, which grew from supplying Byzantine courtiers into a major European fur market by the sixteenth century.

Katerini lies at a recorded latitude of about 40.28 degrees north, a little south of Kastoria. Its page places it on the Pierian plain between Mount Olympus and the Thermaic Gulf, as the capital of the Pieria regional unit, and describes it as a tourist gateway to Mount Olympus, about 20 kilometers away, and to the archaeological site of the ancient city of Dion.

Volos sits at a recorded latitude of about 39.36 degrees north. Its page calls it a coastal port city in Thessaly, about 170 kilometers north of Athens and 140 kilometers south of Thessaloniki, and the only sea outlet for Thessaly, the largest agricultural region of Greece. The page also describes Volos as an important industrial center.

Lamia is recorded at a latitude of about 38.90 degrees north. Its page says the city dates back to antiquity, sits on the slopes of Mount Othrys near the river Spercheios, and today is the capital of both the Phthiotis regional unit and the Central Greece region, serving as the agricultural center of a fertile farming and livestock area.

Chalcis has a recorded latitude of about 38.46 degrees north. Its page describes it as the chief city of the island of Euboea, built on the Euripus Strait at its narrowest point, and notes that its name comes from the Greek word for copper or bronze even though no trace of ancient mining has been found, and that in the Late Middle Ages it was called Negroponte.

Elefsina is recorded at about 38.04 degrees north, within the Athens metropolitan area. Its page says it was the chief seat of the worship of Demeter and Persephone and home to the Eleusinian Mysteries, was the birthplace of the tragedian Aeschylus, and is now an industrial center with the largest oil refinery in Greece. The page adds that it was designated a European Capital of Culture, an honor celebrated in 2023.

Nafplio has a recorded latitude of about 37.57 degrees north, on the coast of the Peloponnese. Its page says it served as the first official capital of the modern Greek state from 1827 to 1834, that it passed from Frankish lords to the Venetians and the Ottomans, and that this long history of foreign rule left fortifications such as the Palamidi fortress above the city.

Heraklion is the southernmost stop, at a recorded latitude of about 35.34 degrees north, on the island of Crete. Its page calls it the largest city on Crete and the largest in the Greek islands, says the area has been inhabited continuously since at least 7000 BCE, and names the Palace of Knossos, the center of Minoan civilization from roughly 2000 to 1350 BCE, among its sites.