Menoikio

Menoikio (Greek: Μενοίκιο, also known to the local populations as "Bozdakas" and "Bozdas", Greek corruptions of the Turkish name "Boz Dag", which was applied to the mountain by the Turks in Ottoman time, Bulgarian: Змийница, Zmiynitsa) is a mountain range in the eastern Serres and western Drama regional units of eastern Macedonia, Greece.

[2] The nearest significant settlements are Serres, Nea Zichni, Emmanouil Pappas and Agio Pnevma to the south and Alistrati and Mikropoli to the west and north.

[3][4] A notable landmark of the mountain is the Byzantine monastery of John the Baptist (founded in 1270), 8 km to the north of the city of Serres.

[5][6] His relics were exhumed in 1854 and the following epigram was erected in the place where his grave stood: Ἣδε μεν ἡ Προδρόμοιο Μονή τήν κόσμος αείδει ἡ πολιή μήτηρ Μακεδόνων ζαθέων ἥδε δε Γενναδίου πατριάρχεω, τοῦ κλέος εὐρύ, νεκροδόχος λάρναξ ἀθανάτου φθιμένου.

[7] This is the monastery of Prodromus, which is praised with hymns by the people the hoary mother of sacred Macedonians and this is the coffin of Patriarch Gennadius, whose glory was great, the immortal deceased.

A close view of Mount Menoikio, from its foothills 8 km to the north-east of Emmanouil Pappas .