This is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Bulgaria and there is hardly a Bulgarian who has not heard of it, and probably few have not yet managed to visit and explore it.
In its legendary status, it has been compared to Petra in Jordan, as well as Machu Picchu in Peru.
Its remarkable history can be traced back 8,000 years, which is astonishing.
Reports about it are broadcast on major global media outlets around the world, and extensive publications tell of its notorious epoch-making nature from the pages of prominent periodicals.
The well-known British explorer Philip Carr-Gom gives it a prominent place among the fifty sacred places in the world.
In southern Bulgaria, not far from the border with Greece, high on a hill are the ruins of an ancient city.
Called by the old inhabitants "The Mountain of Spirits", Perperikon may be the place where the legendary sanctuary of Dionysus, visited by Alexander the Great, was located.
There, while wine was poured over the sacred fire, a prophetess predicted to the great commander that he would conquer Asia...
Time has muffled the cry of the prophetess, the rumble of battles, the echo of weapons and turned them into silence. Perperikon is a place where you can contemplate the rise and fall of civilizations undisturbed...
Philip Kar-Gom
"Sacred Places. From Stonehenge to Santiago de Compostela"
Sofia, 2009
Attracted by its unsurpassed charisma, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock here every year to experience its specific authenticity, its mystical mystery, its original charm and its ancient and rich history.
That is why I stand today in the vast parking lot, newly built northeast at the foot of the eponymous peak, trembling, with a charged camera in my hand (and a charged spare battery in my pocket), looking at the hill with the runes on the rocks, which have stored so much history, waiting to be hit by the epochal typhoon "Perperikon".
I feel that the same trembling emotions have also taken over the hundreds of tourists who, like me, decided to embark on the "Perperikon" adventure that day. The parking lot is filled with buses, cars, motorcycles and caravans. The noise of euphoria has taken over everyone - the tourists arriving at this moment, who are about to immerse themselves in the magic, and those who are now returning from the ancient ruins and are still completely captivated by what they have experienced.
I immediately rushed to buy Professor Nikolay Ovcharov's guidebook "Sacred Perperikon. The Home of the Gods", which was inseparable from me during my adventure, revealing to me the mysteries that the impressive rock city hides and on which I, in turn, entirely base my story here.
The rocky hill I am walking on has been deified by people since the Stone Age at the end of the fifth and beginning of the sixth millennium BC.
During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages (around the 8th to 9th centuries BC), Perperikon became an impressive cult center. In many places on the summit, people carved massive rock altars, carving hundreds of chambers into the rocks, removing thousands of tons of stone.
Towards the end of the last centuries BC and during the first centuries AD, the rock city took on its complete form. Its infrastructure included the Acropolis at the top and the Palace-Sanctuary located immediately below it to the southeast, as well as the extensive Northern and Southern suburbs.
The interest in Perperikon is fueled by preserved historical data. Even the ancient Greek historian Herodotus tells of the famous sanctuary with an oracle of the ancient Thracian deity Dionysus-Zagreus, located somewhere in the great Rhodope Mountains. Its priestess was as famous as the unsurpassed Pythia in the temple of Apollo Delphic.
The Roman author Suetonius adds that this place was visited by Alexander the Great and the father of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus – Gaius Octavius, to learn the predestination of their fate.
Macrobius, for his part, says that the temple of Dionysus-Zagreus was carved into the rocks with a stone altar, on which wine was poured and fire was lit. At its height, the priests divined the whims of fate.
Herodotus also writes that the sacred place was guarded by the royal family of the Thracian Bessi, who inhabited the Rhodope Mountains. Their royal palace gradually took shape near it, because among the Thracians the king also represented the chief priest.
The last king of the demons and priest of Dionysus was Vologes, who in the eleventh year BC raised a rebellion against the Roman conquerors, who after fierce battles captured the ruler, and the sanctuary of Dionysus fell into their hands. The Romans were so impressed by his bravery that they welcomed Vologes with a special triumph, during which they led him through the streets and forums of the eternal city.
In his guidebook, Professor Nikolay Ovcharov shares how happy he was when, together with his team, during the large-scale excavations of Perperikon, they came across a room carved into the rocks, fully corresponding to the ancient descriptions of the sanctuary in question.
It was the year 45 and Rome finally conquered Thrace, turning it into its province. There is no doubt that this fate also befell Perperikon. The Italians respected the ancient Thracian cult and gave it even greater splendor.
Streets carved into the rocks, surrounded by beautiful colonnades, appear on the Acropolis. Representative architectural complexes, temples and residential buildings gradually develop around them.
After the Balkan Peninsula was attacked by various barbarian tribes in the 3rd century, the inhabitants fortified the rock city with powerful defensive fortress walls.
The excavations uncovered extremely rich finds from the 1st to the 4th centuries - artistic ceramics, numerous coins, bronze sculptures, silver mirrors, and metal applications with images of ancient deities.
The palace-sanctuary flourished, and the newly created architectural monuments formed a huge city, amazingly carved into the rocks.
In the year 378, prosperity came to an end. Then, near Hadrianopolis (today's Edirne), the Goths led by the leader Fritigern defeated the Roman legions and killed Emperor Valens. Then the barbarians plundered the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Rhodopes. Archaeological research shows that during these dramatic events, the sacred rock city of Perperikon was also burned.
However, it soon rose from the ashes like a phoenix. The partially destroyed fortifications were repaired and the destroyed buildings were rebuilt. The era of Christianity began.
It turns out that it was from Perperikon that the spread of the new religion in these lands began. In 2005, the team of Professor Nikolay Ovcharov discovered the oldest known church on the great mountain. It was built at the end of the 4th century or the beginning of the 5th century and is connected with the mission carried out in 393 ÷ 398 by the baptist of the Rhodopes, Bishop Niketas Remesianski. As his biographer Pavlinus of Nola writes, the great Christian missionary managed to baptize the hitherto rebellious Bessi.
During the Middle Ages, the rock city became an important administrative center, as well as the seat of the episcopal see. Unlike other settlements in the period between the 7th and 9th centuries, it did not suffer economic decline.
This was facilitated by the large gold deposits located in the immediate vicinity of Perperikon. At the beginning of the 11th century, huge quantities of the precious metal were mined there, with which a whole financial reform was carried out in Byzantium. And a preserved letter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople from 1337 testifies that the bishops of Perperikon were so rich that they were obliged to pay pensions to impoverished metropolitans from the Aegean Sea.
It was the gold mined there that caused the many wars for Perperikon between Byzantium and Bulgaria in the period between the 13th century and the 14th century. The clash was especially great in 1343, when Tsar Ivan Alexander sent troops to capture the rock city. He appointed an archon there, who ruled the entire Eastern Rhodopes. Later, however, the Romans managed to regain the strategic fortress.
In 1361, the Ottoman Turks besieged Perperikon. Unlike most Christian fortresses, the rock city did not surrender, but defended itself selflessly to the last man. For years, archaeologists have discovered the terrible traces of the fierce battle. Fires, destroyed walls and decapitated skeletons mark the path of the Turks to the heart of the settlement - the powerful citadel. The survivors fortified themselves inside, where they fought their last battle. Finally, the Ottomans took over the inner castle, and the few survivors were taken into slavery. This is evidenced by the discovered prison chains, as well as information in the Venetian archives.
For several more decades, the Ottomans maintained a garrison behind the walls of the thousand-year-old fortress. With their advance into the interior of the Old Continent, it became redundant and was abandoned forever. However, a few settlements remained at the foothills. An official document from 1627 proves that they were still inhabited by Christians. Later, they were resettled to other parts of the Ottoman Empire, and in their place were settled people of Muslim faith.
My wonderful autumn walk through the ruins of the holy city
It is a wonderfully warm, even hot, October autumn day. The sun is shining on the lands of the Eastern Rhodopes.
I am traveling through the valley of the Perperek, a left tributary of the Arda. South of the river, my car flies along the wonderful road connecting the villages of Stremtsi, Lyulyakovo, Gorna Krepost and Dolna Krepost.
My gaze is directed southeast – towards the highest peak (735 meters) in the middle of the valley, about ten kilometers long and only 3 ÷ 4 kilometers wide. Right there, for nearly 8,000 years, the epoch-making Perperikon (Perperek) has been rising – an early historical, ancient and medieval stone complex and a sacred rock city in the Eastern Rhodopes.
I watch out for the turnoff to the right, from which a completely new road begins, leading to the extensive parking lot built at the foot of the peak.
The parking lot is huge, there are plenty of free spaces and I park.
Around there are well-arranged and maintained by the Kardzhali municipality pavilions, from which tourists can buy souvenirs and literature about the cultural landmarks of the Eastern Rhodopes.
From the parking lot, the road winds ever upward along a paved alley with places to rest and platforms for observing the beautiful surroundings.
After about ten minutes of walking along the central alley, I arrive at a crossroads.
There are two options here:
The alley leads directly to the Southern Suburb, from where you reach the Palace-Sanctuary and the Acropolis
The stairs on the right lead directly to the Palace-Sanctuary
I choose the right approach and the stairs leading through the impressive rock passage.
I take the steps into a 100-meter rock passage, carved directly into the majestic cliffs.
This is the classic sacred path to the temple, leading to the most important part of the ancient sanctuary. Slowly and carefully, step by step, I immerse myself more and more in the history of this amazing place.
The trail uses a natural rock gorge, up to seven or even eight meters high in places.
Human tools have worked it since ancient times, additionally forming stone steps for climbing the steep slope.
Here I am in the middle of the protective fortress wall built in the second half of the 3rd century, surrounding the Palace-sanctuary from all sides and connected to that of the Acropolis.
The protective fortress wall is nearly three meters thick and is built of huge, skillfully carved blocks without masonry.
The interior of the Palace-Sanctuary is entered through two consecutive gates with preserved original stone thresholds.
Passing through the second entrance, I find myself in the middle of the ensemble called by researchers the Palace-Sanctuary.
Through the doors, which are still fully preserved today, I continue my walk-journey through history, passing through dozens of rooms carved directly into the rocks.
Crossing the stone thresholds, I enter various rooms, halls, and mysterious underground tombs, climb staircases, and pass through hidden corridors with carved places for the torches that once illuminated them.
The grandiose architectural facility extends over an area of 10,000 square meters on seven consecutive levels, alternating in a west-to-east direction.
The palace-sanctuary has a T-shaped plan, with a difference in elevation of nearly 30 meters. In height, the ensemble developed on at least three floors, traces of which are visible in the openings that served to place the massive supporting beams.
I close my eyes and imagine that once upon a time, from the valley of the Perperek River, the Palace-Sanctuary was a particularly impressive sight.
To the east of the inner courtyard, a huge ceremonial throne room, more than 30 meters long, opens up before my eyes. It is accessed through a double door and a 5-step staircase, enhancing the sense of solemnity and representation. This is the reception hall of the palace, where lavish feasts were held and official guests were welcomed.
On the lower floor were the utility rooms for the servants, where the servants prepared the food and poured the thick red wine.
To the west of the courtyard are several important halls. Tour guides often call the southernmost of them the bathhouse because of the shallow pool of water and the benches carved into the rocks. According to the latest hypothesis of archaeologists, this room is a temple dedicated to the eastern god Mithras, who penetrated the subjects of the Roman Empire in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. This is also one of the few localized temples from the Roman period that we see during our walk through Perperikon.
The northernmost room is actually a deep underground that was once hidden from human eyes.
It contains twelve stone tombs. There is evidence that they were topped with massive sarcophagi, which have not been preserved today.
All of them were looted and there is no information about who the buried people were. Archaeologists have reason to believe that these were prominent Thracian priests and princes.
In the room between the mausoleum and the temple of Mithras, the pedestal for an altar has been preserved, on which funeral services were held for these deceased.
The main cult in the Palace-Sanctuary is practiced in the large oval hall discovered in 2003. The finds show that it was formed millennia ago, probably as early as the Late Bronze Age in 3500 BC. At that time, the surrounding rooms did not yet exist, and the sacred path to the temple led directly to it. Later, it was included in the northwestern wing of the developing Palace-Sanctuary. In its center, three meters high, rises a round stone altar with a diameter of two meters, scorched by the repeated lighting of fire. Next to the altar, a spacious platform was carved into the rocks for the actions of the priests, and the worshipers were located at its foot. Unlike all the other rooms, this hall had no roof.
This facility fully coincides with the descriptions of ancient authors about the famous sanctuary of the Thracian Dionysus-Zagreus in the Rhodope Mountains. It was on this altar that the priestess made her predictions, pouring the sacred wine and lighting the prophetic fire.
In the 5th century, Christians buried this room with earth in order to erase every memory of the pagan past.
I leave the Palace-Sanctuary and head towards the South Gate of the Acropolis.
Before climbing the steep stone staircase near the defensive fortress wall, I see the foundations of an interesting building. It is partially carved into the rocks, and on both sides it is built with stone blocks. During the excavations in the center of the almost square room, archaeologists discovered a large clay altar, erected directly on the stone floor. It is badly burned from the repeated lighting of fire. Obviously, the channels carved in the floor for draining some liquid, the holes in the stone for tying sacrificial animals, and the deep niches in the wall for placing gifts are related to the rituals that were once performed.
The materials found in the room indicate that the building functioned in the 3rd century before the official adoption of Christianity by Perperikon. A marble slab with a relief of a Thracian horseman was also found in the building. Unlike other parts of the Bulgarian lands along the middle reaches of the Arda River, these images are extremely rare. This is explained by the specificity of the Thracian culture in the Eastern Rhodopes, where worship of the majestic mountain ranges was mainly relied on.
During the Roman era, the old beliefs of the local population were largely unified. It was at this time that the cult of the Thracian horseman or Heros developed, uniting all earlier beliefs. There is no doubt that the image of the ancient Dionysus-Zagreus shines through in it. The discovered specimen is filled with excellent sculptures depicting Heros galloping on horseback, greeted by the mother goddess. As the dimensions of the tile suggest, the marble relief probably stood in one of the niches carved in the wall of the room. In this way, archaeologists locate another pagan temple dedicated to the Thracian horseman who succeeded the ancient Dionysus-Zagreus.
I climb the stairs and cross the South Gate, entering the Acropolis.
Several giant stone blocks have survived from the earliest fortification, built thousands of years ago. This construction is called Cyclopean in archaeology because the ancients believed it was the work of the mythical giants the Cyclopes.
During the Roman period, this gate connected the Acropolis with the Southern Suburb, and in the Middle Ages it was walled up.
Passing through the South Gate, I find myself in the central part of the main fortification of Perperikon. I first head west along the network of raised wooden walkways.
In the ancient city, the approaches are on wooden walkways and platforms with railings raised above the ruins. On the one hand, they protect the antiquities from indiscriminate walking on them, and on the other - they allow visitors to get a good look at the unique remains of Perperikon.
One after another, the ruins of buildings from different stages of Perperikon's thousand-year history emerge, over which I literally fly over a meter or two in height.
My first stop is above the so-called Small Palace.
This was the residence of the Roman governors of Perperikon from the 2nd to the 5th century. At one time, the magnificent ensemble was entered through two ceremonial entrances from the north and south. The southern one is particularly impressive, because there the rock rises and all the architectural structures are carved into it. To reach it, one walked along a street carved entirely into the stone massif, located right next to the powerful defensive fortress wall of the Acropolis. After crossing the high and also carved threshold of the gate, visitors to the Small Palace found themselves in a wide courtyard. From there, they could reach any of the seventeen rooms of the ensemble, passing through numerous doors. Today, their stone thresholds with holes for their iron mechanisms are fully preserved.
In the Small Palace, it is very clear how the ancient builders of Perperikon solved the problem of draining the courtyards and squares, since during the construction work they reached the rock everywhere and in a torrential downpour both the ground floors of the buildings and the deep, stone-cut, underground chambers would be flooded. The problem was solved by building an incredibly complex sewage system.
First, rainwater is taken in by gutters dug in open areas, which are collected in larger canals, and finally in entire cloacas, exiting through special openings in the protective fortress wall. From above, the canals are covered with stone slabs, but in some places the ancient architects left shafts with lifting hatches to make them easy to clean from fallen leaves and sediment. When the canals drain closed courtyards, holes are drilled in the thresholds of the gates. Absolutely the same sewage system is observed in other buildings of the Acropolis and the Palace-Sanctuary.
Continuing along the path to the west, I find myself in front of the ruins of a mighty fortress. This is the inner castle of the medieval Perperikon, built at the end of the 12th century. When it was erected, the residence of the Roman governor had long been in ruins. Therefore, the foundations of the medieval fortress stand on them, and in the construction they used materials from the earlier period.
For its time, the castle was a true miracle of fortification*.
*Fortification is the military science of artificial enclosures and barriers that strengthen the position of one's own troops during military operations.
The word comes from the French verb fortifier – to strengthen, to reinforce.
The defensive fortress wall is built of mortared stones and is 1.7 meters thick.
The main gate faces east and is guarded by two quadrangular towers. Similar towers are also erected in other places, but the most important is the defensive fortress tower in the southwest corner, which guards the western gate of the citadel.
The tower has a polygonal plan and today is preserved at a height of up to ten meters.
This is the so-called donjon – a massive defensive fortress tower in medieval castles, where defenders could hide in case the fortress was captured.
At one time, the tower had several floors with living rooms, storage rooms for provisions and ammunition.
The inner castle of Perperikon played a major role both in the Bulgarian-Roman wars and in the dramatic siege by the Ottomans in 1361.
I am at the top of the tower and the view from here towards the Acropolis at the top, the Southern Suburb and the vast Eastern Rhodopes takes my breath away! I stay here for dozens of minutes, contemplating the rise and fall of different civilizations.
I carefully descend the constructed wooden steps to continue my extraordinary walk through the ages. The path leads me directly through the main gate of the citadel.
The remains of a Christian temple, built of perfectly shaped quadrangular blocks, appear before my eyes.
In its center rises the pulpit decorated with reliefs - the rostrum from which the bishops preached.
The church is a single-nave basilica with a narthex and a courtyard to the west. A baptistery was added to the north - a baptismal font for the elderly.
Like the Small Palace in the 12th century, this temple has long ceased to exist and its remains are under the foundation of the castle. The characteristic plan and a coin found in the wall during construction allow us to date the construction of the basilica very precisely. This is the church from which Bishop Niketas Remesianski and his followers began the baptism of the Thracians in the Rhodope Mountains.
Gradually, a complete monastery complex with chain rooms was formed near the building. If we believe the information of the biographer Pavlin Nolanski, it was here that the sacred scriptures were first translated into the Thracian language.
I go around the basilica along the wooden path and climb to the highest point of the hill.
Everywhere on the stone surface are visible holes for placing beams of some circular-plan structures, made since time immemorial. But undoubtedly the most impressive here is the grandiose cistern for drinking water, completely carved into the rocks.
The reservoir has a quadrangular shape, and in its deepest part it exceeds five meters in depth. The mathematics shows that at full volume more than four million liters of liquid can be collected here. This is impressive! The cistern is mainly fed by rainwater, but according to the memories of the locals, there was once a spring here. This reservoir was created in ancient times, but it also served the medieval castle.
Between it and the aforementioned donjon tower, the residence of the rulers of Perperikon from the 13th to the 14th centuries was discovered in 2008. It is preserved in places up to three meters high and measures twenty meters by fifteen meters.
The building is three-part and has several levels. In the past, the upper floors were reached by a massive staircase located in front of the southern facade.
The plan of the building is typical of medieval residential palaces in both Western and Eastern Europe. It was here that the Bulgarian archon of the Eastern Rhodopes, appointed by Tsar Ivan Alexander in 1343, lived. It is no coincidence that the only gold seal of this great ruler was discovered on Perperikon, as well as many of his silver coins, minted in the capital Tarnovgrad.
I return towards the early basilica, from where I continue my walk along two other wooden paths, exploring the northwestern part of the citadel. It is here that an entire district of buildings was discovered in 2007.
It includes about twenty public and residential buildings, built of stone and dry masonry. They are preserved up to about two meters in height, and the area of their lower floors reaches 50 ÷ 60 square meters. The buildings are built on small streets, connected by large internal communications.
Sometimes, there are attached farm buildings with dug-in clay jars for storing food and wine. The quarter functioned from the 2nd to the 5th century, when Perperikon was a huge city. The residential buildings have survived thanks to the incredibly well-preserved defensive fortress wall from the Roman period in this area. A fragment of it is preserved there, along with a tower about 40 meters long and up to 7 meters high.
I will share with you another landmark from this sector. When the remains of buildings from the Roman period are uncovered, archaeologists notice that sometimes their foundations rest on old, earlier structures. These are stone altars carved into the rocks, similar to those from the Palace-Sanctuary, but smaller than it. So far, nine such structures have been excavated, carved on prominent and additionally processed rocks. Their upper part is meticulously leveled, coated with clay, and with a hollowed-out circle for lighting the sacred fire. Apparently, the worship of the Thracian Dionysus-Zagreus was carried out not only by the chief priestess, but also by the more ordinary people.
I'm already halfway through my walk around the Acropolis. Now I have to head back to the South Gate, from where I plan to explore the eastern part, which has been uncovered in recent years.
Right in the center of the fortified area, a small square is carved into the rocks, which in the harsh conditions of the mountain town plays the role of a Roman forum or an ancient Greek agora.
From the west, north and east, spacious residential buildings, reaching a length of several tens of meters, developed. They were made entirely of stone and once developed to a height of two or even three stories.
Narrow streets lead from the square to the entrances of the individual buildings. To the east, these buildings continue all the way to the defensive fortress wall.
However, the most interesting direction is south of the square, and I hurriedly and with trepidation head there.
A wide street with colonnades on both sides is carved into the rocks.
To the south is a huge building in which deep underground chambers carved into the rock massif are perfectly preserved.
Directly opposite it, on the other side of the street, is a building that stands out from the rest. It has an almost square shape and its walls are surrounded by very well-hewn stone blocks.
A narthex was formed to the adjacent colonnade, from where one entered the interior.
Already when this building was discovered in 2014, archaeologists had the idea that it was another temple from the pagan era. On the first day of the excavations in 2015, an important find was found in the northwestern corner of the building. This is a 10-centimeter bronze statuette of Apollo, dated to the 2nd ÷ 3rd century. Unlike most votive figurines from the Roman era found in the Eastern Rhodopes, it was executed very precisely. This find leads archaeologists to suggest that the temple may have been dedicated to Apollo.
Surrounded by columns, the ceremonial street reaches east to a massive three-nave basilica. Only the beds carved into the rocks for the walls and the bases of the pillars have survived from it.
It turns out that during the Roman period it was a large public building with halls where the city council met. After the adoption of Christianity from the East, a semicircular apse was added and the basilica became a Christian temple. Later, it was also destroyed during one of the wars fought between the 13th and 14th centuries, and a small medieval church was built on its remains.
From this time there are also dozens of graves carved into the rocks. They have the typical Christian east-west orientation and were covered with massive stone slabs. It is in them that archaeologists discover interesting deviations from the funeral customs typical of folk superstitions. One of them is with the so-called vampires - deceased people who, according to the ideas of the time, were threatened with vampirism after their death. Therefore, quite rude rituals from today's point of view were performed on their bodies, such as driving iron objects into them, tying the limbs, placing stones and embers from the hearth on top.
One of the graves, however, is much more peculiar. The body is laid in a crouched position and on its side, and the orientation is completely different. Two knives and a silver coin of the Ottoman emir Orhan, who lived from 1327 to 1362, on whose orders Perperikon was captured, were found next to it. The deceased was found in a room with a circular plan, in whose square antechamber his war horse was also buried.
This turns out to be the earliest known mausoleum (türbe) in Ottoman archaeology.
The buried person is probably the Turkish commander himself, who commanded the unit that captured the holy city. Perhaps a bronze plate with an inscription in early Ottoman language, found elsewhere on the hill, fell out of the breastplate of his armor during the battle. The text speaks for itself:
The Gazavat* leads to eternal life.
*The holy war of the Muslims against other religions.
My walk in an easterly direction ends at the end of the wide wooden observation platform.
From here, a magnificent view opens up to the Palace-Sanctuary located in the lower part, the Southern Suburb and the entire Acropolis.
On one of the rocks you can see the image of the Turkic goddess of fertility Umay, probably left to the Proto-Bulgarians by the leader Kuber in the 7th century.
Now it was time for me to descend from the sacred hill.
Before descending the southern alley, I pass by several exposed medieval dwellings from the 13th to 14th centuries.
They were built on the ruins of ancient buildings, and inside they preserve everyday items - millstones for grinding grain, ceramic vessels, and more.
I'm walking in the middle of the Southern Suburbs.
A huge water cistern carved into the rocks has been excavated, which is a precisely shaped facade with excellently carved stone blocks. During the Roman era, there was a fountain on it, and the main road that entered the city passed along the side.
Another landmark in the Southern Suburbs are the pools carved into the rock and several rock tombs. Some are of the type of so-called sharapani or stone presses, in which Thracian maidens trampled the ripe grapes with their bare feet. This is not about industrial production, but about the making of sacred wine, associated with the cult of Dionysus-Zagreus. So far, hundreds of such facilities have been discovered on the slopes of the hill, but most are still underground and waiting to be discovered.
Slowly, slowly and calmly, I descend the alley along which I came, amazed by what I saw, learned and filmed.
At the base of the hill, this small church has been discovered today.
On the left, the museum of the newly built museum complex promises more pleasant surprises for its guests.
I say goodbye to Perperikon, promising myself that I will come again.
Perperikon and the medieval fortress "Perperek" have been declared an immovable cultural property (cultural monument) with the category of national importance - architectural, construction and archaeological value from Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The epoch-making Perperikon - the sacred rock city in the Eastern Rhodopes is site number 25 of the Hundred National Tourist Sites of Bulgaria.
How do you get to Perperikon?
The epoch-making Perperikon (Perperek) - an early historical, ancient and medieval stone complex and sacred rock city in the Eastern Rhodopes, rises in the middle of the Perperek River valley near the villages of Dolna Krepost and Gorna Krepost (to the north) and the village of Murgovo (to the south) in the Kardzhali region.
Perperikon stands on:
272 kilometers (about 2 hours and 58 minutes by car) from the capital
97 kilometers (about 1 hour and 44 minutes by car) from the city of Plovdiv
373 kilometers (about 4 hours and 43 minutes by car) from the city of Varna
255 kilometers (about 2 hours and 50 minutes by car) from the city of Burgas
And finally, my dear friends,
you shouldn't miss checking out
the special photo album with moments –
discovered, experienced, filmed and shared with you!
Comentários