8 September: Macedonia Independence Day

Today is Macedonia Independence Day. Here are 10 things you might not know about Macedonia.

1. Macedonia was the only country to gain independence from Yugoslavia peacefully, without any bloodshed.
2. The country's name is believed to mean either "highlanders" or "the tall ones", a description of the people or the country's mountainous terrain. Several sources I found said that Macedonia has 34 mountains and this is the largest number of any country in the world, although to me, that seems like a small number for a world leader - surely the US has more than that - unless they mean the most mountains per person. Mount Korab, at 2,764 m (9,068 ft), is the tallest mountain in Macedonia.
3. Macedonia is landlocked, but has many lakes and ponds, including Lake Ohrid, one of the oldest lakes in the world at around 4 million years old. The lake has 200 endemic species not found anywhere else and has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.
4. There is an ongoing dispute with Greece about the use of the name Macedonia, which is also the name for a historic region of Northern Greece. The country was therefore known, on its admission to the UN as "the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia". Update: Now known as North Macedonia, since February 2019.
5. There have also been disputes about the design of Macedonia's flag, leading to it having two different flags since 1991. Both designs feature a Yellow sun on a red background. The first flag was was based on a symbol found on ancient tombstones in the town of Vergina. However, Vergina is in Greek Macedonia so Greece claimed the symbol was theirs and were so upset about it being "stolen" that they blocked trade with the Republic of Macedonia and forced the UN headquarters in New York to take down the Macedonian flag. Macedonia changed its flag to its current one from 1995 as a compromise. The flag of Macedonia was voted as the second best flag by the World Almanac’s editors in 2002. (Bhutan’s came first, and Kiribati came third.)
6. Skopje is the capital and largest city. The city is home to the biggest cross in the world, 66m high, on the Vodno Mountain in Skopje. It was built as a memorial of 2,000 years of Christianity in Macedonia and the world. The city was also the birthplace of Mother Teresa.
7. There are three monasteries in Macedonia which claim to have parts of the actual cross Jesus was crucified on buried within their foundations.
8. Macedonia has its own "Stonehenge", in Kokino, 30 km from Kumanovo. It is a megalithic observatory thought to be over 3,800 years old and the fourth oldest ancient observatory in the world, the oldest three being Abu Simbel, Egypt; Stonehenge; and Angkor Wat, Cambodia.
9. Macedonia is the first country in the world to have full access to wireless broadband.
10. Macedonia's poppies yield the best quality opium in the world. The quality of poppy juice is measured in morphine units - Chinese opium contains eight units and is considered to be of high quality, Indian opium contains seven units, and Turkish opium six. Macedonian opium contains 14 morphine units.