Albania is on only a few tourists' wish lists for their next vacation - and wrongly so. The small Balkan country has fantastic coastlines and untouched beaches along the Ionian and Adriatic Seas, offering perfect conditions for a relaxing beach holiday.
Half of the Albanian territory is of mountainous terrain with altitudes of over 600 m above sea level. A small proportion of these are high-mountain regions. From Skadar Lake in the north to the south in Vlora a few kilometers wide alluvial soils partly extend along the coast, which expand to large Myzeqe level in central Albania. There are numerous lagoons and wetlands on the coast.
At about 1000 BC the Illyrians settled in the Western Balkans. Residential cities were Scodra and Rhizon. After the Illyrian wars in late 3rd century BC, the Western Balkans came under Roman influence and the Romanization of the Illyrians began. With the division of the Roman Empire 395th BC, today Albania came under Byzantine rule. In 591 the Slavs from the north penetrated into the area, followed by looting allover the Balkans.
Next to our content articles we publish blogs to certain topics. Please follow the given links to get to our topic relevant blog articles with couple of additional pictures about Albania.
The first historically known settlers in the area of Elbasan belonged to the ethnic group of the Illyrians, which in the 2nd century erected first dwellings at the river Shkumbin, at that time called Genusus.
Once again, together with acquaintances, we drove from Camping Rino in Struga to Pogradec, this time we choose the small border crossing at Sveti Naum, as the ride along the Ohrid lake is of great beauty and we wanted to take the high mountain road up into the National Park Galicica again.
The shores of Ohrid Lake have been inhabited since the Neolithic Age (6000 BC), which is impressively documented on the Macedonian side with the perceived pile dwelling settlement at the lake just about 15 kilometers from Pogradec.
Once again we set off from Camping Rino in Struga in the direction of Pogradec on the Albanian side of Ohrid Lake, this time to visit the so-called King's tombs Selcë e Poshtëme (the correct Albanian spelling) carved into the rock below the Acropolis.
After our stopover in the Pindos mountains with the renewed hike to the upper vantage points in the Vikos gorge, we had first guided our camper to the stop in Bourazani.
Saranda is located on a small, not particularly protected and south open bay on the Ionian Sea, which is surrounded by 200 to 400 meters high hills.
Comparable to Apollonia, the Albanian city of Berat can look back on a historical development as a protohistoric abode for many centuries, so traces of ancient cultures have been found since about 2600 BC.
On the way to the south of Albania, we reached Tirana and the port city of Durres and next to it Vlora, another important coastal city with the seat of various authorities of the Qark or better using the term district same named which includes the surrounding area and the Albanian Riviera as well as the regions of Saranda and Delvina.