Serres 7.07

Sérres is a city in Macedonia, Greece, capital of the Serres regional unit and second largest city in the region of Central Macedonia, after Thessaloniki. Serres is one of the administrative and economic centers of Northern Greece. The city is situated in a fertile plain at an elevation of about 70m, some 24km northeast of the Strymon river and 69km north-east of Thessaloniki, respectively. Serres' official municipal population was 76,817 in 2011 with the total number of people living in the city and its immediate surroundings estimated at around 100,000. The city is home to the Technological Educational Institute of Central Macedonia, composed of the School of Technological Applications, the School of Management and Finance and the School of Graphic Arts and Design, with at least 10,000 Greek and international students.NamesThe Ancient Greek historian Herodotus mentions the city as Siris (Σίρις) in the 5th century BC. Theopompus refers to the city as Sirra (Σίρρα). Later, it is mentioned as Sirae, in the plural, by the Roman historian Livy. Since then the name of the city has remained plural and by the 5th century AD it was already in the contemporary form as Serrae or Sérrai (Σέρραι), which remained the Katharevousa form for the name till modern times. In the local Greek dialect, the city is known as "ta Serras" (τα Σέρρας), which is actually a corruption of the plural Accusative "tas Serras" (τάς Σέρρας) of the archaic form "ai Serrai" (αι Σέρραι). Τhe oldest mention of this form is attested in a document of the Docheiariou Monastery in Mount Athos from 1383, while there are many other such references in documents from the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. It was known as Serez or Siroz in Turkish. In the Slavic languages, the city is known as Ser in Serbian, while in Bulgarian it is known as Syar (Сяр) or Ser.