Vardar River

Stone bridge spanning the Vardar River, Skopje, North Macedonia.

Vardar River, major river in North Macedonia and in Greece. It rises in the Šar Mountains, flows north-northeast past Gostivar and Tetovo (in the Gostivar-Tetovo depression), and then turns sharply to flow southeast past Skopje and Titov Veles into Greece, where it enters the Gulf of Salonika of the Aegean Sea. Of its total length of 242 miles (389 km), 187 miles (301 km) are in North Macedonia. Its drainage basin is 8,643 square miles (22,385 square km). The river’s valley is important for agricultural production and as a part of the Morava-Vardar corridor, a major transportation route between central Europe and the Aegean.