The Nestos rises in the Rila Mountains of Bulgaria, where it is called the Mesta. It is about 230 kilometres long, and roughly half of this is in Greece. Its basin covers more than 5,000 square kilometres, and about two thirds of it are in Bulgaria.

It enters Greece in the area of Drama and crosses the Rhodope Mountain Range. Here the Thisavros dam, 172 metres high, holds the river in a long lake. Lower down, between the villages of Stavroupoli and Toxotes, the river runs through the Nestos Straits, a gorge of limestone cliffs where it makes one tight bend after another.

After Toxotes the river is in flat country, and it is the border between Macedonia on the west and Thrace on the east. Its delta is a wide plain on the coast, and the mouth is opposite the island of Thassos.

The Nestos Straits

In the gorge the river turns between grey cliffs, with sandbanks on the inside of each bend and thick woodland on the slopes. The straits were declared a protected forest landscape in 1977, over about 24 square kilometres. Griffon vultures nest on the cliffs.

The delta

The delta is a mix of lagoons, reed beds, salt marsh, freshwater pools and sand dunes. It has been a Ramsar wetland since 1975, over about 220 square kilometres, and part of the National Park of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace since 2008. About 277 bird species have been recorded, among them the Dalmatian pelican and the black stork.

The Great Forest

A riverside forest once covered more than 125 square kilometres between Toxotes and the sea. Most of it was cleared for farmland around 1950. The part that remains, between 4 and 5 square kilometres on both banks, is fenced and strictly protected. It shelters jackals, otters and a wild population of pheasants.

Hiking in the straits follows a marked path that starts at the village of Galani, at the southern end of the gorge. Workers cut it into the rock in 1893, when the railway through the gorge was built, and it stays close to the water on the east bank. The first part, to the spring of Kromniko, is about 5.5 kilometres long. Beyond the spring the route to the village of Stavroupoli runs for long stretches on the railway line and through its tunnels.

Canoe and kayak trips go down the same gorge, from Stavroupoli to Galani. The distance is about 22 kilometres and takes four to five hours of paddling on calm water. Operators based in the villages provide boats and guides.

A viewpoint above the village of Toxotes, reached by road, looks down on the bends of the river.

Stavroupoli is the main village of the valley, north of the straits. Plane trees shade its square, and around it are old houses, a church of 1858, a folklore museum and the railway station. Toxotes is at the southern end of the gorge, and the smaller village of Galani, beside it, is where the path begins. On the hills above the gorge are Kromniko and Livera, two abandoned villages; in Kromniko the stone houses and the old school still stand.

Keramoti is a small port at the edge of the delta, with lagoons on both sides and the ferry to Thassos. The information centre of the delta is here. The town of Chrysoupoli, a short drive inland, is the centre of the farming plain around the delta.