Panagia, the old town

Panagia covers a rocky peninsula next to the harbour. Its lanes are paved with stone, and many houses have wooden balconies. At the top stands the castle, which the Ottomans rebuilt on Byzantine walls. You can walk on the walls and climb its round tower for views over the bay. Lower down, the 16th-century Halil Bey mosque is used for exhibitions, and a glass floor shows an Early Christian church beneath it. Nearby are the restored house of Mohammed Ali, who was born in Kavala and later ruled Egypt, and the Imaret, a domed complex he founded, now a hotel.

The modern centre

The Kamares aqueduct, built in the 16th century, crosses the centre on stone arches up to 25 metres high. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Kavala was a major centre for processing tobacco. Many of its large tobacco warehouses are preserved, and the Tobacco Museum shows how the leaves were grown and traded. The Archaeological Museum covers Neapolis, the ancient city on the site of Kavala, where the Apostle Paul landed on his first journey to Europe.

The beaches of the city lie along the coast west of the centre. Rapsani, the beach closest to the centre, sits below the coast road. Kalamitsa, at the western edge of the city, is a sandy beach with sunbeds, showers and bars. About 4 kilometres from the centre, Batis is a sandy, organised beach with a campsite behind it.

Tosca, about 5 kilometres west, is a quieter sandy cove where trees grow down to the water. On the other side of the city, Perigiali is a smaller beach at the eastern edge of town. For long stretches of sand, many visitors drive about 15 kilometres further west, to the coast around Nea Peramos, a small seaside town.