SKOPJE Welcome to Skopje, the largest and capital city of The Republic of Macedonia and its political, cultural, economic and academic center. GEOGRAPHY The city of Skopje comprises SkopjeThe city is is located built in the in theSkopje north of twothevalley, artificialRepublic along lakes theof Macedonia, coast located of on in thethe TreskaVardar riverriver.-lake Several Matka rivers and meetthe center the Vardar of the withinBalkan the city theboundaries:peninsula, Treska lake. and Treska halfwaySmaller, Lepenec naturaland lakesSeravabetween can. Belgradebe found andnear Athens . Smiljkovci, on the northeastern edge of the urban area. The climate of Skopje is classified as The Skopje valley is bordered by the continental sub-Mediterranean Šar Mountains, the Jakupica range, with a mean annual temperature of the Osogovo range, and Skopska 13.5 °C Crna Gora. Mount Vodno, the highest The summers are long, hot and point inside the city limits, is 1066 m humid, while the winters are short, high and is part of the Jakupica relatively cold, and wet. Snowfalls range. are common in the winter period, but heavy snow accumulation is rare and the snow cover lasts only for a few days. POPULATION Skopje is characterized by a large ethnic diversity. The city is Macedonians make up 69% of located in a region where Ethnic the population, Albanians-20%, Macedonians and Albanians Turks-1.7% Romani-4.6%, Serbs- meet, and it welcomed Romani, 3%. There are also other Turks, Jews and Serbs throughout nationalities with minor its history. percentages. Republic of Macedonia has around 2.500.000 inhabitants, and Skopje concentrates almost one million of them. CULTURAL LANDMARKS.