HISTORY

Avdera

Abdera is a village in the prefecture of Xanthi. Hometown of Democritus and Protagoras, its mythical foundation was attributed to Heracles who founded the city to honor his friend Abderus who was devoured by the Mares of Diomedes. The historical founding is traced back to a colony in the middle of the 6^th century BC. The colony did not flourish and the city was reestablished later by the people of Teos, who evacuated Ionia when it was overrun by the Persians.
During the Persian Wars, fought between 512 and 479 BC, the Persians used Abdera as their base. After the Persians' defeat, their leader Xerxes came to Abdera on his return trip, made a compact of friendship with its people and gave them a golden sword and a golden tiara. After the end of the Persian wars the city flourished in every respect, but weakened again during the Peloponnesian war.
An important event in the history of Abdera was the sack of the city by a Thracian tribe, the Triballi, in 376 BC. Abdera was only saved from total destruction by the timely intervention of Athens, and therefore Abdera entered the Second Athenian Confederacy. Next, the city was conquered by Philip II of Macedon, the Seleucids, the Ptolemies and the Romans, and again by the Macedonians. In 170 BC the Roman armies and those of Eumenes II of Pergamon besieged and sacked it.
Abdera's decline was hastened by the swamps created in its vicinity by the flooding of the river Nestos.

.

Nestos

According to the Greek mythology Nestos or Nessos was born at the beginning of time, before man arrived. Nestos was born together with 12,456 rivers and 3,000 Nymphs. His parents were Okeanos and Tethys. According to Herodotus there were lions were living in the riparian forest. The army of Alexander the Great used the wood of Fraxinus trees which grows in the area to make the sarissa, a long spear used in warfare.

Keramoti

In antiquity the area was inhabited by the Thracian tribes of Bistones and Bisaltae. During the reign of Philip and Alexander the Great it was occupied by the Macedonians. After the fall of the Roman Empire the area became part of the Byzantine Empire and was completely Hellenized. During the following years it was raided by Huns, Goths, Bulgarians, Slavs, Franks and others. At 14^th century it was conquered by the Turks. During the Balkan wars Western Trace was ceded to Bulgaria but after the Treaty of Sevres (1920) it was ceded to Greece.
A year after the Asia Minor Catastrophe, refugees from Eastern Trace settled in the area. The main problems they had to face were the limited supply of fresh water and malaria. Over time more families settled, driving growth, particularly in agriculture.
At present Keramoti benefits from its proximity to the island of Thasos and has posted significant tourism growth. It is an area worth visiting during summer.