Mount Chortiatis or Hortiatis , known in Antiquity

Classical antiquity

Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...

 as Cissus

Cissus (Mygdonia)

Cissus or Kissos , was a town and mountain of Amphaxitis, Macedon, not far from Rhaecelus, which appears to have been the name of the promontory where Aeneas legendarily founded his city. Cissus, along with Aeneia and Chalastra, contributed to the aggrandizement of Thessalonica...

or Kissos, is a mountain in Central Macedonia

Central Macedonia

Central Macedonia is one of the thirteen regions of Greece, consisting of the central part of the region of Macedonia. With a population of over 1.8 million, it is the second most populous in Greece after Attica.- Administration :...

, Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

. It rises southeast of Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki , historically also known as Thessalonica, Salonika or Salonica, is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of the region of Central Macedonia as well as the capital of the Decentralized Administration of Macedonia and Thrace...

, peaking at 1,201 metres. Besides the city of Thessaloniki, there are several suburbs and villages located on the foothills of Chortiatis, most notably Chortiatis

Chortiatis

Chortiatis is a suburb and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 Kallikratis local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylaia-Chortiatis, of which it is a municipal unit...

 and the affluent suburb of Panorama

Panorama, Thessaloniki

Panorama is an affluent suburb and a former municipality in the Thessaloniki regional unit, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylaia-Chortiatis, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. Panorama has a population of 20,000 and is located at the foot...

, both of them belonging in the Pylaia-Chortiatis municipality. The mountain's landscape is wooded, with part of these woods making up Thessaloniki's Seich Sou Forest National Park. A fall wind

Katabatic wind

A katabatic wind, from the Greek word katabatikos meaning "going downhill", is the technical name for a drainage wind, a wind that carries high density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Such winds are sometimes also called fall winds...

 that occurs on the Thermaic Gulf

Thermaic Gulf

The Thermaic Gulf is a gulf of the Aegean Sea located immediately south of Thessaloniki, east of Pieria and Imathia, and west of Chalkidiki . It was named after the ancient town of Therma, which was situated on the northeast coast of the gulf...

 was named after the mountain as well.

Mount Chortiatis played a crucial role for the water supply of Thessaloniki from ancient up until modern times. In the late Byzantine period

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

 (ca. 1300), the Chortaïtes monastery on the northern slopes of the mountain provided the city and the region east of it with fresh water by an aqueduct

Aqueduct

An aqueduct is a water supply or navigable channel constructed to convey water. In modern engineering, the term is used for any system of pipes, ditches, canals, tunnels, and other structures used for this purpose....

whose remains have been partly preserved.