A stunning Aegean setting and an array of sights drawn from 26 centuries of history make Kavala one of northeastern Greece’s most fascinating destinations. From atop the ruins of a Byzantine acropolis, an Ottoman castle guards the small peninsula that holds the old town, called Panagia. Cobbled streets lined with pastel-hued buildings wind up to the bastions, past churches, the Halil Bey mosque and the domed Imaret, once a religious school. Kavala’s new city fans out across the surrounding mainland hills, tobacco warehouses and elegant neoclassical mansions reflecting its 19th-century fortunes. A monumental 16th-century aqueduct, built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, spans the historic and newer districts. A short drive inland is ancient Philippi, the city founded in 356BC by Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, whose ruins have yielded Hellenistic, Roman, early Christian and Byzantine finds.
