Aetolia-Acarnania

Aetolia - Acarnania ( Greek: Aetoloakarnania Αιτωλοακαρνανία ) is one of the three regional districts of the Greek region Western Greece. It was established soon after the independence of Greece in 1833 as a prefecture, but lost this status in 2011 by the Greek administration reform. Apart from the allocation of seats in the Regional Council, the area has no political significance. Capital is the city of Missolonghi. Based on their surface was Etoloakarnania 2010, the largest prefecture in Greece.

Geography

Aetolia - Acarnania located in the southwest of the Greek mainland. To the west it is bounded by the coastline of the Ionian Sea. To the north is the western part of the Gulf Ambracian the border, in the eastern part bordering on the river Achelous to the region of Epirus. In the northeast Etoloakarnania borders the region of Thessaly, on the east by the region of Central Greece. The south of the prefecture is formed by the Gulf of Corinth in the eastern part to Antirrio and in the western part of the Gulf of Patras from Antirrio.

The area is very diverse landscape. In the southwest of the mouth of the Achelous dominated with a delta landscape through wide plains dotted with lagoons; the most famous, if not right on the Achelous, the lagoon of Messolonghi. The Achelous and the course into the interior marked in ancient times and even today the boundary of the landscape Aetolia ( south and east ) to the landscape Acarnania ( west and north). The Achelous meanders in Määndern of Agrinio at the foot of Panetoliko massif in the east of the prefecture to its mouth in the Ionian Sea at Iniades in a southwesterly direction. North of the Achelous on the northern edge of its Delta estuary, the mountains rise Acarnanian. These ridges demarcate the level of the Achelous of the southern coast of the Gulf Ambracian. In a very short distance from the mainland is located off the west coast of the Ionian island of Lefkada. The southern coast of the Gulf Ambracian is hilly by the Northern foothills of the mountains Ambracian. The most significant development of this area is Vonitsa on Ambracian golf.

We find the small town Amfilohia on the southeast tip of the Ambracian golf in the Bay of Amfilohia. It marks a conceptual west-east line to the beginning of the northern part of the prefecture in the landscape Acarnania. The western foothills of the Pindus mountain range here right up to the east coast of the Gulf Ambracian. The northern border of the prefecture is again a plane which is dominated by the course of a river. Here it is the Arachthos, which is coming from the north-east of Arta establishes the boundary between Etoloakarnania and Epirus.

The East is determined not only by the foothills of the Pindos massif through the chain of reservoirs on the Achelous. During the most elevated Kremasta Reservoir only bordered on the prefecture Etoloakarnania, the Kastraki Reservoir and the Stratos reservoir is completely in the field of Aetolia - Acarnania. To the southeast the Panetoliko massif borders the plain of Aetolia from which is determined by the largest lake in Greece significantly: the Trichonida lake. North of the western end of the lake Trichonida there is the largest city in Aetolia - Akarnania: Agrinio. Adjacent is the Lysimachia Lake. South of this, the lagoon of Etoliko with the eponymous town begins. She goes over to the lagoon of Messolonghi.

The southeast of the area is in its north by the determined eastward into the mountains extending plane together with the Trichomida Lake in the northern part. Next southeast separated the Nafpaktia mountains the level of Trichonida Lake of the coast of the Gulf of Patras. The Cape Antirrio separates with the cape and the Rio straits formed therefrom Rio - Antirrio from the Gulf of Patras, in the west by the Gulf of Corinth in the east. The Nafpaktia Mountains pull eastward past this cape and frame the city of Nafpaktos one on the north coast of the western Gulf of Corinth. The mountains Nafpaktias be separated from the Aetolian level to Messolonghi from the river Evinos or intersected in the upper reaches. To the east, the mountains Nafpaktias go into the mountains of Phocis and on into the southern foothills of the Pindus mountain range.

Structure

Aetolia - Acarnania includes the municipalities of Agrinio, actions Vonitsa, Amfilohia, Messolonghi, Nafpaktia, thermal and Xiromero.