Discovering Ancient Thrace in Bulgaria

During my holiday to Bulgaria I became intrigued by an ancient people who thrived many centuries before Rome was even founded, the Thracians. I decided to make this blog post to share my experience on discovering this fascinating culture. Bulgaria is an interesting country, while tourism is slowly but surely increasing, the country still has lots of hidden gems. I will focus only on the (sometimes hidden) gems related to the Thracian culture but obviously there are many more.

Thracian is a general term used to describe a number of Indo-European tribes that lived in large Parts of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. According to the famous Greek historian Herodotus they were the second most-numerous people in the world in the 5th Century BC, only surpassed by the Indians. Herodotus even went as far as to say that the Thracians could conquer the world if they we're not internally divided. The Thracians were often used as mercenaries by the Greeks, renowned for their "Peltast" skirmisher units. During the campaigns of Alexander the Great in Persia, he used a large amount of Thracian Peltasts in his army.

A map of  displaying various Greek city states(Varna Archaeological Museum). 

After the defeat of the Persians by the Greeks, the Thracian tribes in modern-day Bulgaria, Thracian-Turkey & Greece(between the Hebrus and the Strymon) united and formed the Odryssian Kingdom in about 470 BC. The Odryssians build beautiful burial tombs lavished with precious objects. Today some of those tombs have been rediscovered and are open to the public. Some tombs have been recognised by UNESCO as a world Heritage site. I made a list of my favorite places to visit if your interested in learning more about the Thracians.

1) The Thracian tomb of Kazanlak

This beautifully frescoed tomb was build for a Thracian king in the 4th Century BC. It was discovered in 1944 during the construction of a bomb shelter and has been made an Unesco World Heritage site. Unfortunately the tomb is not open to the public, no need to despair however because an exact replica has been constructed in the same area. The 3lev entry free is more than worth it. The tomb itself is small and when there are too many people around it might lose a bit of its mystique. Definitely worth a visit!

Replica of Kazanlak Tomb

2) The tomb of Svetshari

This one is a bit off the beaten track, a stunning 3th century B.C. Getae tomb that was discovered in 1982. The tomb has many unique features including high relief sculpted female figures in the main chamber. You can only visit the area with a guide, you have limited visiting time inside the tomb and taking pictures is strictly forbidden. Strict but fair, they really try to keep the tomb in the best possible condition. Our guide spoke excellent english and was very insightful. If I could only visit one tomb it would definitely be this one.

Pictures are strictly forbidden so I took this picture from http://videlei.com, thanks Videlei!

3) The Valley of the Thracian King's

The Kazanlak valley gets her nickname from the large amounts of Thracian tombs that are scattered among the valley. According to current estimates there are around 1500 tombs in the valley and only about 300 have been researched. Be aware that you have to pay for each separate tomb you want to visit. This might not seem like a big deal but keep in mind that visiting these often small tombs takes about 5-10 minutes each. Then consider paying 3-6leva for each tomb and you might be a lots of leva lighter at the end of the day. I still visited about 8 tombs in the valley but would have done more if they had some sort of day pass. Also guides are obligatory and very little English was spoken by them, that being said they were very friendly and guides not speaking English always adds a touch of authenticity for me. Anyway my favorites tombs were:

-The Tomb of Seuthes III (Suspected tomb of the Odryssian King Seuthes III who ruled from 331BC- 300BC).
-Thracian Tomb Shushmanets(A larger tomb supported by a lovely Doric column).
-Ostrusha Mound(Look for the fresco of the young woman).

The Kazanlak Valley

4) Varna archaeological Museum
This enormous museum is very well organised, the exhibits are in chronological order starting with the Prehistory and ending with the Ottoman Period. Every exhibit has English explanatory texts, which isn't always the case in Bulgaria. The highlight of the museum is the Thracian exhibit where you can find 6000 year old gold jewellery, the oldest worked gold ever found in the world. Pretty special right? The other exhibits are definitely worth a look too, so take your time visiting what is probably the best museum in Bulgaria for History Buffs.

Grave 43 from Varna's Chalcolithic necropolis

5) Sophia National archeological Museum
The structure was originally a mosque build in 1496, you will find a large amount of Roman and Medieval items. The best part of the museum is definitely the "Vault" exhibition with all it's treasures, it almost feels like walking into the cave of Ali Baba. Amongst many others look for the golden mask of the Thracian King Teres, a Bronze head of (probably) Seuthes III and the Vulchitrun treasure. Another item that caught my interest was the golden Ezero ring because it hold an inscription that consists of 61 letters. This is very significant considering that the Thracians left no written records and only three other significant inscriptions are known to this day.

The golden mask of the Thracian King Teres

The golden Ezero ring

6) Plovdiv archaeological Museum
Another enormous archeological museum that holds tons of Thracian, Roman and Ecclesiastical artefacts. I really liked this museum, everything is well organised and has clear english information next to it. The pièce de résistance is without a doubt the Panagyurishte treasure, consisting of an amphora, a phiale and 7 rhytons. All of these objects are in pure (24 karat) gold and weigh a little over 6kg.

The Panagyurishte treasure

That's my little résumé of the things you can visit in Bulgaria about the Thracian culture. Hope you enjoyed it!