The Site

"Although it used to rule over the city’s horizon, today it is hardly discernible among the numerous apartment buildings in the same-name neighborhood"

The Thessaloniki Toumba forms an ellipsoidal mound around 20 m. above its surrounding area. It is located at the confluence of two streams, which are nowadays covered by streets. It is at the last row of the hills surrounding the narrow coastal plain, which is now the city of Thessaloniki, from the East. Nowadays, it is approximately 1,5 klm away from the Thermaios gulf coast. The mound of Toumba is measured to be 153x103m on its base and 81x42 m on its top. Although it used to rule over the city’s horizon, today it is hardly discernible among the numerous apartment buildings in the same-name neighborhood, even via satellite.

This mound has been created by the successive strata of a long-standing settlement, which was founded during the Prehistoric Period and was inhabited up until the Hellenistic Period. The height and shape of the mound were due to the continuous habitation during the 1500 years of the settlement and due to the consecutively built perimetrical walls, which always marked its boundaries. One characteristic of the prehistoric locations of this type is that they were densely inhabited by small population groups.

Οι τούμπες στη Μακεδονία, όπως δείχνει και η ετυμολογία της λέξης, παλιά ταυτίζονταν με τύμβους που κάλυπταν αρχαίους τάφους. Έτσι και η Τούμπα της Θεσσαλονίκης (γνωστή επίσης και ως Τούμπα της Καλαμαριάς, γιατί βρισκόταν εκτός των τοιχών της πόλης), λόγω του μεγέθους και του πολύ χαρακτηριστικού της σχήματος θεωρείτο ότι έκρυβε κάποιον πολύ σημαντικό αρχαίο τάφο. Ωστόσο, ήδη από το 19ο αιώνα, έγινε κατανοητό ότι πρόκειται για  έναν αρχαίο οικισμό παρόμοιο με τα γνωστά «tell», που ανασκάπτονται στη Μικρά Ασία και στη Μέση Ανατολή. Μια διάσημη, μεγαλύτερη αλλά παρόμοιου τύπου θέση είναι αυτή της Τροίας.