Capital and largest city of North Macedonia
About Skopje
Skopje is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultural centre of the country. As of the 2021 census, the city had a population of 526,502. Skopje covers 571.46 km2 (220.64 mi2) and includes both urban and rural areas, bordered by several municipalities and close to the borders of Kosovo and Serbia.
Name
The city is attested for the first name in Geography by Ptolemy c. AD 150 as one of the cities of Roman Dardania. Ptolemy describes the city in Latin as Scupi and ancient Greek as Σκοῦποι. The toponym likely belongs to a group of similar Illyrian toponyms which have been transmitted to Slavic languages in the same way as the modern Macedonian toponym Skopje: Skoplje and Uskoplje in Bosnia, Uskoplje in Dalmatia (Croatia). Shkup, the name of the city in Albanian, developed directly from Roman-era Scupi in agreement with the Albanian phonological development, the basis of evidence of an earlier Albanian settlement in the area. Shkupi is the definite form of Shkup in Albanian. Skopje, the name of the city during the Middle Ages, is the local Slavic (Macedonian) rendition of Scupi. …
History
The rocky promontory on which Skopje Fortress stands was the first site to be settled in Skopje. The earliest vestiges of human inhabitance found on this site date from the Chalcolithic (4th millennium BC). Although the Chalcolithic settlement must have been of some significance, it declined during the Bronze Age. Archaeological research suggests that the settlement always belonged to the same culture, which progressively evolved due to contacts with Balkan and Danube cultures, and later with the Aegean. The locality eventually disappeared during the Iron Age when Scupi emerged on Zajčev Rid hill, some 5 km (3.1 mi) west of the fortress promontory. At the centre of the Balkan peninsula and on the road between the Danube and Aegean Sea, it was a prosperous locality, although its history is not well known. During the Iron Age, the area of Skopje was inhabited by the Dardani. …
Geography
Skopje is in the north of the country, in the centre of the Balkan peninsula, and approximately halfway between Belgrade and Athens. The city was built in the Skopje Valley, oriented on a west–east axis, along the course of the Vardar river, which flows into the Aegean Sea in Greece. The valley is approximately 20 km (12 mi) wide and it is limited by several mountain ranges to the north and south. These ranges limit the urban expansion of Skopje, which spreads along the Vardar and the Serava, a small river which comes from the north. In its administrative boundaries, the City of Skopje stretches for more than 33 km (21 mi), but it is only 10 km (6.2 mi) wide. Skopje is approximately 245 m above sea level and covers 571.46 km2. The urbanised area only covers 337 km2, with a density of 65 inhabitants per hectare. …
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