Tourism in Macedonia

HYDROGRAPHY

In Macedonia there are 1,100 larger sources of water. The rivers flow into three different basins: the Aegean, the Adriatic and that of the Black Sea. The Aegean basin is the largest. It covers 87% of the territory of the Republic, which is 22,075 km. sq. Vardar, the largest river in the basin, drains 80% of the territory or 20,459 km. sq. Vardar is most important and interesting river of all.

It springs out of a permanent karst spring close to the village Vrutok in the foothills of the Sar Mountains and empties into the Aegean Sea. It is 388 km long and on the way to the Aegean Sea it passes through the capital city of Macedonia, Skopje.

Vardar has some very attractive river valley's throughout its flow. In fact it forms four canyons and five valleys. The most attractive canyon is Demir Kapija, which has steep almost vertical slopes and openings of small caves.

Right tributaries of the river Vardar are the rivers: Treska, Babuna and Crna.
Left tributaries of the river Vardar are the rivers: Lepenec, Pcinja and Bregalnica.

The river Crni Drim, flows out of Lake Ohrid. Unlike the other rivers that flow towards the Aegean Sea, it flows into the Adriatic Sea and forms the Adriatic basin. It covers an area of about 3,320 km. sq. i.e 13% of the territory.

The Black Sea basin is the smallest with only 37 km. sq. It covers the norther side of Mount Skopska Crna Gora. Here is the source of the river Binacka Morava which, joining the Morava, and later the Dunabe, flows into the Black Sea.
Most of the rivers are rich with fish and people usually go fishing.
On the bigger rivers like Vardar, Crni Drim, Crna and Bregalnica, there have been built hydro power plant stations that produce electricity for the Republic of Macedonia.