Kavala is a city in northern Greece, the principal seaport of eastern Macedonia and the capital of Kavala prefecture. It is situated on the Bay of Kavala facing the island of Thassos. It has changed names in the passage of centuries, but was always connected with the sea via its harbour.

The harbour was founded by the Thassi in the 7th century from a natural bay on the western coast of the Madonna peninsula. The harbour connected with all the Greek world of Aegean and Asia Minor for trade. It became a Roman in 168 BC and was a base for Brutus and Cassius in 42 BC, before their defeat in the Battle of Philippi. The Apostle Paul landed at Kavala on his first voyage to Europe (Acts, xvi. 11), and in Byzantine times the city was called Christoupolis by the Greeks and Morunets by the local Bulgarians.

Kavala was part of the Ottoman Empire from 1371 to 1912. Mehmet Ali was born here in 1769. Some of its most recognisable landmarks are the Venetian castle on the hill of Panagia and an aqueduct rebuilt by Suleiman II during his reign. The latter still serves today as a symbol of the city.

During the 16th and 17th centuries Kavala harbour plays an important role in the region with the fundamental administrative control of the neighbouring mining region as well as the export trade with local products of wheat, cotton, timber etc.

In the 18th century was period of prosperity for the city of Kavala and its harbour and the first consular authorities of France and Venice were installed. The trade of harbour was mainly export and a centre of fishery and trade of tobacco.

In 1920, Kavala acquired Harbour Committee with the aim of the construction of a harbour. The harbour was officially opened by Eleftherios Venizelos in November 1929, but was completed in the 1950s. The construction of the harbour embankments that were built also created the new beach of Kavala.

Theodoros Zagorakis, the captain of the Greece national football team that stunned the football world by winning EURO 2004, is a native of Kavala.