Greek bakers encircle monument with ring bread

THESSALONIKI, Greece  — Greek bakers in the northern city of Thessaloniki have made a giant "koulouri," a ring bread similar to a bagel, around the city's most visible monument, the medieval White Tower.

(AP Photo/Grigoris Siamidis)

The bread, 165 meters (540 feet) in diameter, weighed 1.35 tons before baking.

(AP Photo/Grigoris Siamidis)

A "koulouri" is a staple snack, sold mostly by street vendors. Of Turkish provenance, it can be found throughout the Balkans under different names.

Elsa Koukoumeria, president of the Thessaloniki Bakers Association, said they would try to list Sunday's feat with the Guinness Book of Records, adding that they would soon bake a much bigger one to encircle the burial mound of Amphipolis, northeast of Thessaloniki.

The bread itself is already gone, distributed to bystanders.

(AP Photo/Grigoris Siamidis)