“We are Back in Bulgaria 🇧🇬 and We Visited The Madara Rider”
In the border town of Giurgiu, where we spent the night, last night, on the Romanian side of the Danube, we found a Western Union opened this morning, and exchanged our Romanian currency for Bulgarian; so we did not lose any money there. (Euros and US dollars hold their value, but once leaving most any other country with currency in hand, it becomes worthless). With that chore out of the way, we headed for the near-by Giurgiu-Ruse Bridge. This is the same bridge which crossed when we left Bulgaria to come into Romania, only ten days before. There were no questions about COVID19 Testing, and we had no issues in that department, and we were waved on.
Giurgiu-Ruse Bridge
We got right to it, after we got our visas stamped again and planned our first stop, only to learn an ancient tomb we wanted to see was closed till Wednesday. It was only Monday, so we went on to the next stop after that one.
What was suppose to be an hour and a half drive from Ruse; the border city to Madara took almost three hours! We headed for this Hwy 2, and I remembered seeing the Google map indicating we would be 69 miles on this first leg of the journey. All of a sudden, the police were blocking Hwy 2, causing a detour, but this detour had no detour signs. We had no idea where we were going, so for a long ways, we followed other vehicles, who appeared to know more than us about the area.
In the end, the last two miles of that 69, miles, were back on Hwy 2, and the detour added about 50 extra miles. It was the craziest thing!
Oh, I would like to mention that today, on Hwy 2, and the detour road, we saw some strange activity along the side of the road, that we saw one other time in Romania. We saw young gals hanging out, doing nothing, but standing or sitting, smoking cigarettes. They appeared to be “waiting.” They were many, but always alone, not in a group, whenever we saw them. The first time we saw this same type of activity, (in Romania) we were on a heavily used trucking route, so I thought, hmmm, okay. Today, (Bulgaria) we were not on a trucking route, and we did see a car pulled over and parked with a girl and a guy on the outside, as they finished ‘dressing.” How strange was that? Very strange. I don’t know if this “activity” is legal in Romani and Bulgaria, but both activities were near the borders in remote areas; on both sides.
Anyway, moving on….We finally made it to Madara, and hiked up a beautiful park-like setting with a stone path and stairs to see this ancient Madara Rider relief, carved into the side of a cliff. We noticed on our hike up, the trees beginning to turn colors; evident that fall coming on!
The likeness of the horse and rider were created in life-size, so it does not stand out, boldly. BUT, “how” it was carved on the side of this cliff is what’s most interesting to me, since it was created over 1,300 years ago. Back in those days, there were no climbing harnesses, and the first climbing carabiner was a thousand years away. The Madara Rider, stone relief is from around 710 BC. If cliffs were scaled back in those days, they scrambled up using hands and feet.
There are also a few small caves and a temple, as well as a fortress ruin, but we were only interested in viewing the Horse and Rider.
The Madara Rider was created 1,300 years ago, seventy five feet off of the ground on a nearly vertical rock cliff, which reaches more than two hundred and fifty feet above the relief. Inscriptions on the rock around the work mark events between 700-800 BC, and show a period of Bulgarian history before their conversion to Christianity.
In a sense, this adds to the mystery of the relief, as it was a sacred pagan site, prior to conversion.
You can still make out the grayhound-like dog behind the horse and the lion pierced by a spear in front, but a large vertical crack and centuries of moisture and wind have effaced much of the detail the carving must have originally offered. The inscriptions too have significant portions that are unintelligible. Both sculpture and inscriptions, carved in triumphant recognition of a Bulgarian state ascendant, were forgotten during the five centuries of Ottoman rule.
Aside from its date and the inscriptions in the area, little else is known of the Madara Rider, making the means of its creation all the more mysterious.
The Rider has been granted UNESCO World Heritage status based on the wonder of its creation. Along with global recognition, it gives a great deal of pleasure to Bulgarians. The Rider was minted on a number of Bulgarian coins around the year 2,000 and it has become a symbol of national pride.
The Madara archeological preserve contains far more than the Madara Horseman itself. It has beautiful walkways, large and small caves, and evidence of settlement from ancient times.
The carving depicts a horse-backed warrior, victorious over a lion, celebrating his kill with an eagle, and a dog at the horse’s hooves.
This relief carving was discovered in the 1800’s, and since that time, a number of scientists have studied the relief. Here is a statement from Borislav Dimitrov; manager of the Madara reserve. “This is a monument from the times of the First Bulgarian Kingdom (681-1018).One of the inscriptions on the rock reads about the relations between the Bulgarian; Khan Tervel and the Byzantine Emperor; Justinian in 705. At that time the Byzantine emperor asked for Bulgarian support in order to regain the Byzantine throne. With an army of 17,000 horsemen provided by Tervel, Justinian suddenly advanced on Constantinople and regained the throne. Tervel received the title Caesar and Byzantium started paying a tax to Bulgaria. This happened just 24 years after Bulgaria was established on the Balkans in 681.”
There are a number of inscriptions in the rock which tell about historical events, before the first half of the 9th century”, Mr. Borissov explains.”They reveal the names of the Bulgarian rulers after Khan Tervel. There are a number of interesting sites in the region. The big cave nearby was a Thracian sanctuary, dedicated to the goddesses of the forests, waters, and fertility. Prehistoric artifacts were also found in the cave. The region has been inhabited since ancient times – 6-7 thousands years BC. The nearby fortress functioned until the 4th or 5th century AD. A Bulgarian sanctuary as well as the remains of a residence of the Bulgarian khan were also discovered. During archaeological works in the reserve, a number of Thracian marble plates with engraved image of a horseman were discovered. This made some scientists believe that the rider was created by the Thracians but it was scientifically proven that the inscriptions were carved in the rock in the same time the relief was created. There is also a Christian rock church, which was active during the times of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom. Services are held there even today.”
After getting some fresh air and exercise on the hike to the cliffside, we drove back down from the area, and began looking for a hotel for the night. After a few tries we found one we liked, but the price was twice our budget, so we opted to just eat dinner there, and continue our search after that. The grounds of Villa Bulgara Eco are beautiful, inside the walled property. Around Madara, it is quite remote, so there are not a lot of lodging opportunities.
As we settled in for dinner, we were asked where we were from, and got the usual oohs and aah, when saying California, USA. After we ordered our dinner, we were asked why we were not staying the night at their villa, and Daryl went on and had a conversation with them about our travels, and our budget. I was still in the dining area.
The people were so nice, and the food was excellent! In the end, the server came out with my dinner and told me, it looked like you are staying after all. I said Wonderful! We were so tired, and we really liked their place. Daryl got a compromised with $10 over our budget, and it was worth it. We have a nice room, and it is very quiet, as the weekend is over, and all the people left, sans one other guest.
My dinner date ❤️
Pork and mashed potatoes with baked pear
Complimentary cheese plate. Cheese made from their own goats
NICE!
Join the Conversation
Archive Blog Posts of Our Country Visits
About Us
About Us
Hello and Welcome to our Travel Blog Website, We enjoy writing about our experiences and taking photos of our adventuring along the way. Our names are: Daryl and Pen, but Daryl calls me “Bunny.” We met, quite randomly, whilst both… Read More
Glad to see everything went smoothly crossing the border. Lovely place to put your heads down and interesting about the rock carving
So true, Judy. It was good all around, and glad we checked out the Madara Rider…SO OLD~