Sacred Mysteries of Macedonia

Richard Bangs Adventures sets out to explore Macedonia, to unlock a few of its treasures, and perhaps uncover some of its many mysteries. Yet few Americans can find it on a map. Some think it a prehistoric address where woolly elephants, "macedons," roamed a million years ago. Students of the Bible know it as the place where the Apostle Paul introduced Christianity to Europe. Many confuse the landlocked nation with Aegean Macedonia, the northernmost region of Greece that abuts the country, and in fact the shared name is a constant irritation between the neighboring countries.

Yet for a time at least, over two millennia ago, Macedonia was the most powerful place on earth. In the fourth century B.C., the young prince Alexander set about on a campaign to conquer and unite the known world when his father, King Phillip II of Macedon, was assassinated before he could carry out the mission. With a core of some 40,000 men from the highland kingdom to the north of Greece, Alexander became the first world leader history has known. First a rebellious Greece, then Persia, then all the lands from Egypt to India fell to the sword of Alexander the Great, and no place was more feared or revered than the place from which he hailed.

Since then, Macedonia retreated to the footnotes of history, subsumed by one invading power after another, hidden within the borders of Yugoslavia for 47 years, and only recently revived as an independent nation in the Balkans. The old identity disputes continue — it gained admittance to the United Nations in 1993 only under the cumbersome name the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia — but at last, and again, Macedonia is coming to stand on its own two feet, deep history and proud heritage.

We'll explore what is perhaps the most famous unknown country on earth, from the oldest lake in Europe to just-discovered Neolithic solar observatories to Orthodox monasteries and Moslem mosques. But Macedonia isn't living in the past — it's become one of the first entirely wireless nations on the planet, with a web of hotspots that penetrates its farthest hillside villages. So log on, tune in, and uncover with us the mysteries of Macedonia.

Macedonia Facts
Landlocked nation bordered by Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia & Montegro, and Albania
Part of former Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia
Area slightly larger than Vermont
Population 2,050,554 (2006 est.)
Home of Alexander the Great
Cleopatra was descended from Macedonians
Birthplace of Cyrillic alphabet
World's first all-wireless Internet country

Sacred Mysteries of Macedonia