#Cemetery
Commonwealth War Cemetery in Exohi
Towards the end of World War I, the British Health Service established the hospital and the convalescent homes of the Entente Allied forces in Hortiatis, due to the area’s healthy climate. Near the hospital, they built military cemeteries that were used until WWII.
In 1914, World War I broke out in Europe. Greece sided with the Allies of the Entente. The Macedonian Front was formed in Thessaloniki in 1916 and some of the British and French forces camped outside the village of Hortiatis. The British Army constructed several sheds for the emergency care of the wounded. Although the dry climate of the area, owing to the limestone rocks and Kouri Forest next to the hospital, made the place ideal for this purpose, many soldiers died of diseases.
The cemetery was begun in March 1916. It is located 15 kilometres north east of Thessaloniki, on the outskirts of the village of Exochi (formerly Kirechkoi), adjacent to the village communal cemetery, just off the road to Hortakoi.
The Hortiatis Commonwealth Military Cemetery holds the remains of 588 British soldiers of World War I. During the WWII, seventeen British soldiers from the troops that remained in Greece after the German invasion were the last ones buried in the Kirechkoi-Hortakoi Military Cemetery.