Yerakini

Yerakini or Gerakini village (rarely Gherakini) (in Greek Γερακινή /ʝerakiˈni/) lies on the Toroneos Gulf between the two fingers of Kassandra and Sithonia in the Chalkidiki/Khalkidiki (in Greek Χαλκιδική) peninsula in West Macedonia (region of   Macedonia) in Northern Greece, 80 kilometres from Thessaloniki, and 65 kilometres from the Thessaloniki International Airport. There is a legend that a queen named Yerakina (Gerakina) lived there once, after whom Yerakini has taken its name.

It is the seaport of Polygyros (Πολύγυρος), 10 km away, the capital of Chalkidiki prefecture.

Yerakini is composed of three different and somehow distant parts: The middle part, the real village, where the church and the police station are found. The inhabitants of the village are farmers mainly cultivating olive trees for olive oil and olives.

The northern part is a place where all the inhabitants are workers and technicians involved in the mining and manufacturing of magnesite (λευκόλιθος lefkolithos “white stone”) as a raw material, a valuable white mineral in the form of white stone for various uses. The first mining factory started operating at the beginning of the twentieth century. Ships from all over the world come to Yerakini for the freight of this useful “white stone”.

The southern part on the sea is very well known to tourists from many countries as a place for summer vacations. It started its development in the early seventies when a beach resort opened on the beach and other smaller facilities appeared to serve the ever increasing demand of accommodation.