The Balkan mountain range (Bulgarian and Serbian: Стара планина, Stara planina, “Old Mountain”). The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea. The highest peaks of the Stara planina are in central Bulgaria. The highest peak is Botev (2,376 m), located in the Central Balkan National Park (established 1991). The mountain gives the name of the Balkan Peninsula. Stara Planina played an enormous role in the History of Bulgaria and the development of the Bulgarian nation and people.

In earlier times the mountains were known as the Haemus Mons. Scholars consider that Haemus (Greek ‘Aimos) is derived from an unattested Thracian word *saimon, meaning ‘mountain range’.

Stara Planina is remarkable for its flora and fauna. Edelweiss grows there in the region of Koziata stena.

Location
The Elhovo municipality is situated in the southeast part of the Republic of Bulgaria and is included in the administrative unit of the District of Yambol.
It borders the Topolovgrad municipality, District of Haskovo, to the southwest, the Bolyarovo municipality to the east, the Republic of Turkey to the southeast, and the Tounja municipality to the north.
The total territory of the Elhovo municipality is 708 sq. km and encompasses 22 settlements.

History
The town of Elhovo is situated along the valley of the Lower Toundzha River.
The favourable natural conditions made human presence possible in the region as early as the Neolithic (6000-4000 BC). Evidence for that are the discovered stone and copper tools and the hand-made pottery with carved ornaments.
The Bronze Age culture was that of the Thracians. There are preserved remains of Thracian fortresses, settlements and burial mounds. Most of the artifacts discovered in them are fragments of pottery, weapons, tools and votive tablets with the image of the Thracian Horseman. The Thracians also left interestingly built megalithic tombs called dolmens. It was the Thracians that built the first settlement near the present-day town, which was known as Orouditsa.
The region fell under Roman rule in 72 BC. They fortified the settlement and called it Orudica ad Burgum – a road station between Cabile and Adrianopolis. The Romans left many traces of their material culture, mostly fragments of pottery and structural ceramics, coins and bronze sculptures.
The town was known as Yoanitsa during the early Middle Ages. The Slavs settled permanently on the Balkan Peninsula in c. 7 AD. They pronounced the name of the town as Yanitsa.
The Elhovo region was annexed to the Bulgarian state, which was officially founded in 681, during the rule of Khan Kroum (802-814). A proof to that is the famous Hambarlii Inscription, which was found in the near the present-day village of Malomirovo.
The town was conquered by the troops of Timourtash Bey in 1373. That event was the start of the hardest period in the historical development of Elhovo – the five-century Ottoman rule.
The Elhovo region gave its modest contribution to the struggles for new Bulgarian education, an authonomous Church (from the Greek Patriarchate) and national liberation. The town’s first school was opened in 1833; and the townspeople drove out of town the hated Greek metropolitan Dionysius in the spring of 1874. The construction of a new church with a nave and two isles was finished in 1877/1878 to replace the small and half-built into the ground chapel.
The first form of resistance against the Ottoman oppressors was the haidout movement (more or less chaotic struggle by small groups of rebels) – especially popular among its leaders were Indzhe Voivoda and Kara Kolyu. An organized revolutionary movement was started in1872 with the foundation of a Secret Revolutionary Committee headed by the tailor Dzhenko Dimitrov. The town welcomed its liberation on 21 January 1878 at a great sacrifice of life.
The years at the end of c. 19 and the beginning of c. 20 were marked by the struggles of the Bulgarian people for the realization of its national ideal – a free and united Bulgarian state. The soldiers from the Elhovo region fought bravely and many of them died with the name of Bulgaria on their last breath. 103 inhabitants of the town were killed in the wars of 1912-1918.
The town gradually established itself as an administrative and economic centre in the following years. Its Turkish name Kazalagach of the Ottoman rule was replaced with the Bulgarian name Elhovo and it was legally acknowledged as a town with Decree № 86 of 18 march 1925.
A new stage in the historical development of Elhovo started in the 1940′s. The Fatherland Front came to power on 10 September 1944 and active preparation for participation in the Fatherland War started at once. The fallen in the war were 16 inhabitants of Elhovo, and over 100 inhabitants of the whole municipality.
The town changed radically in the second half of c. 20, affirming itself as a leading administrative and economic centre.
Overcoming the latest difficult period in its historical destiny, the Elhovo region today strives for a better future. There is a lot of work yet to be done for its becoming a well-developed and prosperous part of Bulgaria. This is the aim of all people who are connected with it and devoted to it.

Source: bulgaria.domino.bg

Shumen (Bulgarian: Шумен) is a city in the northeastern part of Bulgaria, capital of Shumen Province. The Turkish form of the name ?umnu dates back to the Ottoman Empire. From 1950–1965 it was called Kolarovgrad, after Vasil Kolarov. Other English variants include Shoumen and ?umen. The city has a population of 103,016 by permanent address (2006).

Geography

The city lies 80 km west of Varna and is built within a cluster of hills, northern outliers of the eastern Balkans, which curve round it on the west and north in the shape of a horse-shoe. A rugged ravine intersects the ground longitudinally within the horse-shoe ridge. From Shumen roads radiate northwards to the Danubian cities of Rousse and Silistra and to Dobruja, southwards to the passes of the Balkans, and eastwards to Varna and Balchik. Shumen has, therefore, been one of the most important military positions in the Balkan Peninsula.

History

In 811 Shumen was burned by the emperor Nicephorus, and in 1087 it was besieged by Alexius I. During the golden age of Bulgarian culture under Simeon the Great (866-927), Shumen was a centre of cultural and religious activity, and may have born the name Simeonis. Until the 15th century, the city was located around the Shumen Fortress, a sophisticated complex of defensive installations, religious and civil buildings.

In 1388 the sultan Murad I forced it to surrender to the Ottoman Turks. After W?adys?aw Warne?czyk‘s unsuccessful crusade in 1444, the city was destroyed by the Ottomans and moved to its present location. In the 18th century it was enlarged and fortified. Three times, in 1774, 1810 and 1828, it was unsuccessfully attacked by Russian armies. The Turks consequently gave it the name of Gazi (“Victorious”). In 1854 it was the headquarters of Omar Pasha and the point at which the Turkish army concentrated (See Crimean War).

During the 19th century Shumen was an important centre of the Bulgarian National Revival, with the first celebration of Cyril and Methodius in the Bulgarian lands taking place on 11 May 1813 and the first theatre performance. A girls’ religious school was established in 1828, a class school for girls and a chitalishte (community centre) followed in 1856. The first Bulgarian symphony orchestra was founded in the city in 1850. In the same year, influential Hungarian politician and revolutionary leader Lajos Kossuth spent a part of his exile in the then-Ottoman town of Shumen. The house he lived in is still preserved as a museum.

On the 22nd June 1878 Shumen finally capitulated to the Russians and became part of the newly-independent Principality of Bulgaria. In 1882 the Shumen Brewery, one of the first breweries in Bulgaria, was founded.

Landmarks

Shumen boasts the Monument to 1300 Years of Bulgaria, regarded as the only monument in the world to depict the history of a whole country from its creation to the present day.

The Shumen Fortress, partially restored after being destroyed by the Ottomans in the past, is an important historical monument of the medieval Bulgarian Empire. It is located not far from the city on the Shumen Plateau.

The Madara Horseman, a World Heritage Site, is an ancient (710 AD) monument usually attributed to the Bulgar culture, and lies some 20 km from Shumen.

The religious buildings in the city include the Eastern Orthodox Holy Three Saints Cathedral and Holy Ascension Basilica, as well as the Tombul Mosque, the largest mosque in Bulgaria and one of the largest in the Balkans, serving Shumen and the region’s Muslim minority.

Raiskoto praskalo waterfall is the highest waterfall not only in Bulgaria, but also on the whole Balkan Peninsula. Its height is 124,5 m. It collects its water from the “eternal” snow-drift located on the very peak of Botev, to the South of the peak, to jump down the Raiskite Skali rocks – not far away from the Rai hut. It gives the beginning of a small tributary of Byala River, the watershed of which is a part of the Dzhendema reserve and covers the southern slopes of the peaks of Botev, Malak Yumruk, Mlechniya Chal and Zhultets. Byala River flows through the high-mountain pastures and the Dzhendema reserve – the kingdom of the inaccessible precipices, rock teeth and ribs, of floral and faunal diversity. It takes as left tributaries Dzhendemski Dol and the gullies of Golyama and Malka Bazovitsa rivers. Raiskoto Praskalo is also called Kalofersko Praskalo (chute).

The magnificent view captures the tourists. And no matter that a lot of people have visited it, the waterfall and the place, itself, have preserved their untouched and clean aspect.