Pella (pronounced páy-la) is the capital of Macedon and royal residence of its kings. It is on an inlet to The Thermaic Gulf and is a seaport. Here gentle hills roll down to a marshy plain between the rivers Axius and Lydias.

Sprawling over three hills is the royal palace of Macedon. It covers 15 square acres composed of four compounds surrounding a great courtyard with temples, and gardens . It enjoys a magnificent view of the plains, the sea, and the mountains.

The propylon gate on the south of the palace looks down upon the great agora which covers 27 acres of the city. It has a large open central square and is surrounded by a stoa with shops and workrooms. On the north wing of the stoa, nearest the palace, are clustered the official government buildings and at the south-west end are the city archives.

Set apart from the agora is the sanctuary of Aphrodite, Mother Of The Gods. She is the Hellenized Great Mother Goddess of the old religion which still flourishes here. The sanctuary contains a temple, workshops, storerooms and banquet halls as well as an open, park-like area surrounding it.

Nearby is The Temple Of Darron, The Macedonian God of healing with its curative fountain, wells, and cistern.

The entire city is neatly laid out on the Greek plan of the grid with major streets intersecting at right angles. among the many houses rise the palatial homes of the aristocracy, some as large 32,000 square feet. Some of the later ones of the Roman period are remarkable for their columned peristyles and intricate mosaic floors.

Pella was a city of great wealth from its foundation in the late 5th to early 4th centuries and even after it was conquered by the Romans in 168 BCE. Many of the palatial homes were built by Romans as it was on The Via Egnatia, just 24 miles from Thessaloniki. It was once the center of a great hellenic culture superimposed upon the more ancient ways of The Macedonians. The tragic Poet, Euripides wrote his play, The Bacchae, here, and here he died, torn to pieces by the hounds of King Archelaus in a tragic hunting accident. Agathon, the host in Plato's Symposion was from Pella and Zeuxis, the most famous painter in Greece, painted the murals in the royal palace.

It was a place where the culture of classical Greece flourished in a land of an ancient, Homeric lifestyle. It was the home of Philip and Alexander and the birthplace of most of the men and women who would come to lead the world in the Hellenistic age. All the major players of the years of tumult after the death of Alexander were from Pella.

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- Hood write-up by Kallistos Alexandros
- Map by Alerissa Nestor