27 Facts About North Macedonia

North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a Southeast European country bordered by Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, and Serbia.

It gained independence in 1991 as one of Yugoslavia's successor states.

For thousands of years, people have lived in North Macedonia. According to archaeological evidence, Neolithic civilizations existed there as early as 7000 BC.

From 1453 to 1913, North Macedonia was a province of the Ottoman Empire.

Macedonia was partitioned between Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece in 1913, after 460 years of Ottoman rule. Serbia incorporated what is now North Macedonia.

North Macedonia was a member of Yugoslavia's socialist federation from 1945 to 1991. On September 8, 1991, it achieved full independence.

The North Macedonian flag has a red background with a golden circle in the centre and golden rays extending to the edges. Alexander the Great has long been associated with the starburst design.

After 30 years of wrangling with Greece over the name, the country officially changed its name from Macedonia to North Macedonia in 2019. The Greek province of Macedonia, bordering North Macedonia, had long been associated with Alexander the Great and Greece had argued that North Macedonia's insistence on being called Macedonia implied "territorial ambitions against the Greek region".

The conflict stems from Alexander the Great, a Greek-born general who ruled over a vast empire that stretched from modern-day North Macedonia across Greece and Persia to India and Egypt.

The country's official name at the time was the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYRM, as recognised by the United Nations.

The self-proclaimed Republic of Vevani is located in North Macedonia. The micronation declared independence in 1991, but it is not formally recognised by any country.

The megalithic observatory of Kokino, known as the "Macedonian Stonehenge," is over 4,000 years old. NASA ranks it as the world's fourth oldest ancient observatory, following Abu Simbel in Egypt, Stonehenge in Britain, and Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

The "Warrior on a Horse" statue, thought to depict Alexander the Great, is one of Skopje's most famous landmarks. It stands 28 metres (92 feet) tall, weighs 30,000 kilogrammes, and costs an estimated €9.4 million (around $10 million).

Mother Teresa, the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was born in modern-day North Macedonia in 1910, though she was Albanian at the time. In 2016, Mother Teresa was canonised as Saint Teresa of Calcutta.

In 2018, a baby was born in Liverpool, UK, who shared the same birthday as his father and grandfather from North Macedonia. A baby with the same birth date as two preceding generations is one in 130,000.

One of the world's largest crosses can be found in North Macedonia. Mt Vodno's Millennium Cross stands 66 metres (217 feet) tall.

North Macedonia is named after the ancient kingdom of Macedon, which existed from the 7th to the 2nd centuries BC.

Skopje is named after the ancient title Scupi. It is the Latin name for the Greco-Roman fortress town that was founded there.

One of Europe's deepest and oldest bodies of freshwater can be found in North Macedonia. Lake Ohrid is 34 kilometres long, 300 metres deep, and three million years old.

North Macedonia also shares Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe as a UNESCO World Heritage Site with 17 other countries.

Toe Proeski, known as the "Balkan Elvis," was one of the country's most popular pop stars. Proeski represented his country in the Eurovision Song Contest in 2004. He was killed in a car accident in 2007 when he was 26 years old.

According to legend, the Kuklica Rock Formations in North Macedonia depict a wedding party. According to legend, the 30 million-year-old natural formations were formed when a man couldn't decide between two women to marry, so he married both at different times on the same day. The second bride was so upset because she arrived early that she turned the entire party to stone.

Unlike its neighbours, North Macedonia remained peaceful during Yugoslavia's disintegration.

Struga, in North Macedonia, is home to the world's oldest international poetry festival, the Struga Poetry Evenings (SPE). Since its inception in 1961, the SPE has bestowed its most prestigious award, the Golden Wreath, on some of the world's most illustrious poets.

The Painted Mosque is another well-known North Macedonian landmark. The mosque, which was built under Ottoman rule in the 15th century, is known for its multicoloured facade made up of a patchwork of rectangular panels.

North Macedonians are the world's fourth-heaviest smokers, consuming an average of 2,784.93 cigarettes per person per year.

North Macedonia is Europe's second-least developed country, after Moldova. Overall, it is the world's 82nd most developed country.