SALONIKA (sah-16n-e'ka, popularly sal-611'1-W* or SAL-. ONIKI, the capital of Greek Macedonia, and one of the principal seaports of south-eastern Europe. Pop. (1928) about 245,000, including some 50,000 Sephardic Jews, whose ances tors fled thither in the 16th century to escape religious perse cution in Spain and Portugal: their language is a corrupt form of Spanish, called Ladino (i.e., Latin). Salonika lies on the west side of the Chalcidic peninsula, at the head of the Gulf of Salonika (Sinus Thermaicus), on a fine bay whose southern edge is formed by the Kalamara heights, while its northern and western side is the broad alluvial plain produced by the discharge of the Vardar and the Vistritza, the principal rivers of western Macedonia.
The ecclesiastical architecture of Salonika was once remarkable for its specimens of early Christian (Byzantine) origin and style, with well-preserved mural decorations. St. Sophia (Aya Sofia), formerly the cathedral, probably erected in the 6th century by Justinian's architect Anthemius, was converted into a mosque in 1589. The nave, forming a Greek cross, is surmounted by a hemispherical dome covered with a rich mosaic representing the Ascension. St. Demetrius, which was probably older than the time of Justinian, consisted of a long nave and two side aisles, each terminating eastward in an atrium the full height of the nave, in a style not known to occur in any other church. This church was destroyed by the great fire of 1917. It is partly re paired but mainly ruinous. St. George's, conjecturally assigned
to the reign of Constantine (d. 337), is circular in plan, measuring internally 8o ft. in diameter. The external wall is 18 ft. thick, and at the angles of an inscribed octagon are chapels formed in the thickness of the wall, and roofed with wagon-headed vaults visible on the exterior ; the eastern chapel, however, is enlarged and developed into a bema and apse projecting' beyond the circle, and the western and southern chapels constitute the two entrances of the building. The dome is covered throughout its entire sur face of Boo sq. yd. with what is the largest work in ancient mosaic still extant, representing a series of fourteen saints stand ing in the act of adoration in front of temples and colonnades. The Eski Juma, or Old Mosque, is another interesting basilica, evidently later than Constantine, with side aisles and an apse without side chapels.
Salonika is the see of an Orthodox Greek archbishop. Each religious community has its own schools and places of worship, among the most important being the Jewish high-school, the Jesuit college, a high-school founded in 186o and supported by the Jewish Mission of the Established Church of Scotland, a Ger man school, dating from 1887, and a college for boys and a sec ondary school for girls, both managed by the French Mission Laique and subsidized since 1905 by the French government. Railways, Harbour and Commerce.—Salonika is the prin cipal Aegean seaport of the Balkan Peninsula, the centre of the import .trade of all Macedonia, and the natural port of shipment for the products of an even larger area. It is the terminus of f our railways. One line goes north to Nish in Serbia, where it meets the main line (Paris–Vienna–Constantinople) of the Oriental rail ways ; another, after following the same route as far as Uskiib in Macedonia, branches off to Mitrovitza in Albania. A third line extends westward from Salonika to Monastir. A fourth, the Con stantinople junction railway to Constantinople, was partly dis mantled and put out of use in 1921, but re-organized later. It now runs via Seres and Kavalla and joins the main line at Kuleli Burgas.