Megaliths, an ancient mystery

Photo: Georgui Kitov

Chromleh, near the village of Staro Jelezare 

Some argue that megaliths used to be shrines of pagan gods, others that they operated as ancient astronomical observatories, still others believe they represented burial ground facilities. 

Veneta Nikolova

Megalithic sites in Bulgaria have not lost their appeal for either explorers or curious tourists. You might fail to spot some them while walking on open fields or in the woods, however these ancient structures immune to the destruction of time, and alive in legends, have been there for thousands of years. So far, hundreds of such structures have been card-indexed in Bulgaria. Their actual number is even bigger though.

© Photo: Lyubomir Tsonev

Menhirs near Pliska

No one knows anything about them. The monolithic rammed stone blocks, grouped or structured in weird facilities, were built by our predecessors in the course of close to four millennia. Such heaps can only be seen in Europe and Asia. The earliest ones from the 4th millennium BC stand in Northwestern Europe. The Bulgarian megaliths are younger – built from 12 to 5 c. BC, hence their more sophisticated construction.

Do you remember the funny character Asterix and his good friend Obelix who drags along his favorite menhir, or a stone block? In fact menhirs are stone blocks either larger than human height or clustered together, set deeply into the ground. There are hundreds of dolmens in Bulgaria. These are facilities made of stone slabs that look very much like houses with two to three rooms. “We don’t know who created them. We talk about the Thracians but they actually lived after the structures appeared”, explains Lubomir Tsonev from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, who has explored megaliths for years. The Bulgarian explorer advises us to focus on Northeastern Bulgaria where the ruins of the first Balkan Bulgarian capital Pliska dated in 7 c. are scattered. Its vicinity boasts hundreds of magnificent menhirs similar to the ones in France and Belgium.

© Photo: Lyubomir Tsonev

 Chromleh in the Rhodopes (the village of Dolni Glavanak)

“No one can say what they were made of but the mystery is right in front of your eyes”, Lubomir Tsonev says. “Some are 1.5 m in height, others, close to 2 m and stand out rammed in the ground. Some menhirs are set into circles and are called cromlechs. Stonehenge offers some features of a cromlech. Bulgaria has two such structures. One of them was found in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains near the village of Dolni Glavanak, not far from the dams along the Arda River. This is a great place to visit. It displays 15 stone columns spaced out in a circle with a diameter of 8 meters”- says Lubomir Tsonev.

© Photo: Lyubomir Tsonev

Dolmen in Stranja Mountain, the village of Granichar

The other cromlech was found by late archeologist Prof. Georgi Kitov in the region of Starosel, Southern Bulgaria. In 2002 Dr. Kitov’s team came across the cromlech on the southern edge of the village of Staro Zhelezare. It represents twenty stones of various height arranged in a circle. “Quite surprisingly this cromlech is unique worldwide as to the way the construction has been buried. It seems that the Thracians loved to make mounds, and they even made artificial mounds. In this way they covered the cromlech allover.” –says Tsonev.

Stone monuments abound in the southeastern Bulgarian mountains Strandja and Sakar. Their ancient forests are virtually dotted with dolmens. Interestingly, some of the megalith structures face ancient summits crowned with pagan shrines. In the past the people of Sakar believed that the millennial stones were inhabited by ghosts and spitted fire at night.

© Photo: Lyubomir Tsonev

Dolmen in Sakar Mountain, the village of Hlyabovo

“The earliest dolmens in Bulgaria stand in the Sakar Mountain, in the vicinity of Hlyabovo village, not far from Topolovgrad. There is a map in the village. The locals call dolmens ‘barnlets’ or ‘dragon houses’. Indeed, they look like houses. The simplest constructions have a single chamber, others have more. In the recent past the mountain was bare, and they stood out clearly. However after the region was afforested they are difficult to spot amid thick vegetation. Wonderful dolmens are found in central Strandja Mountain, off the villages of Granichar, Kirovo, Gorno Yabalkovo and Dolko Yabalkovo.” 

Translated by Daniela Konstantinova

Radio Bulgaria

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