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Covering more than 983093 square kilometres Perperikon is the biggestmegalithic site in the Balkans

The first people arrived here 983096983088983088983088 years ago and carved the rocksso they could fill the crevices with fragments of pots as offerings tothe unknown deities or spirits they believed in Then these people

disappeared from Perperikon After a hiatus of about 983089983088983088983088 years atthe end of the 983093th and the beginning of the 983092th millennia BC thehill again became the focal point of religious activity In the 983089983096th-9830891048626thcenturies BC the sanctuary was already so extensive and famous thatartefacts belonging to the Minoan and Mycenaean civilisations arenow found there

Perperikon experienced a decline in the 983092th-983089st centuries BCbut when the Romans took over Thrace activity resumed and newbuildings adorned the hill In the 983094th Century however Christianity

took over and the sanctuary was abandoned Unlike other pagansacred places in the Balkans Perperikon did not fall completelysilent

Christians moved into the empty shrines built churches over themand turned Perperikon into the stronghold of local bishops It allcame to an end in 98308939830941048626 when the Ottomans invaded and people leftPerperikon for good leaving the hill to nature which soon swallowedup the remains of the churches and the Thracian shrines

The site was rediscovered by archaeologists in the 1048626983088th Century

but Perperikon only became a household name in the early 1048626983088983088983088s when excavations started again and the theory that it had belonged tothe Oracle of Dionysus was promoted as a proven fact

Previous spread Remains of cult

pits and graves in the bedrock

Perperikon was built on solid rock

so the bases of each building and

even the graves were hewn in

the stone

Deciphering the traces in the

bedrock is not easy Some believe

that the pits covering the surface

of Perperikon were only for ritual

purposes Actually most weremade to support columns of

buildings or to store food and

liquids

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Major river breaks outin Stara Planina heading

towards Black Seaby Minka Vazkresenska photography by Anthony Georgieff

How to define the source of a river is often a tough question toanswer Is it where water springs from the ground for the first timeor is it the place where two or more streams merge into a larger flowEven the source of the Danube Europes largest river is contentiousat least three springs claim to be the beginnings of the mighty river

The Kamchiya River is no exception Theoretically it is only983092983094 kilometres long and flows through northeastern Bulgaria before joining the Black Sea at a particularly beautiful and terrifyinglymosquito-infested forest With its major tributary the Golyama orGrand Kamchiya the river is 1048626983092983092 kilometres long making it the983096th longest river in Bulgaria The official source of the GolyamaKamchiya ndash and of the Kamchiya ndash is in the Lisa Planina at analtitude of about 983095983089983088 metres above sea level

But there is a spot high up in the Stara Planina on the border ofits central and eastern parts which has gained popularity as the truesource of the Kamchiya It is where the second major tributaryof the river confusingly called the Luda or Crazy Kamchiya springsup as a tiny stream runs eastwards for 1048626983088983088 kilometres and joins theGolyama Kamchiya The Luda Kamchiya is the 983089983088th longest river inBulgaria

The popularity of the Luda Kamchiyas spring as the genuinebeginning of the Kamchiya River (are you already confused)

is probably due to its location It is in a pleasant and historicallysignificant spot the Vratnik Pass connecting Veliko Tarnovo andElena to the north with Sliven south of the Stara Planina

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Situated at an altitude of 983089983088983097983095 metres above sea level and being 983089983088kilometres long the Vratnik Pass used to be a main route through themountain The Romans built a road along it and in the Middle Agesa strong fort guarded it a frequent site of battles between Bulgariansand Byzantines The importance of the pass was mirrored in its nameZhelezni Vrata and Demir Kapiya mean Iron Gates in Bulgarian andTurkish resepctively The modern-day name of the pass Vratnik wasadopted in 9830899830979830921048626 and just means Gate

Today the pass is almost deserted as most drivers prefer to avoid thenarrow potholed road which zigzags through a thick forest Even insummer when you stop at the highest part of the pass to look for theKamchiyas source you will most probably find the place empty

Actually empty means empty of tourists The forest around thespring is the temporary home of of some Gypsies families dealing with lumberjacking and mushroom-pickingTheir ragged tents madeof old blankets and sheets of nylon are all over the place as are theheaps of household garbage

The scenery becomes almost surreal when mist descends drenchingthe forest in white and leaving only the dark trunks of the closesttrees visible

The Luda Kamchiyas spring is east of the road in a depressionhidden by tall trees Spectacular it is not as it is fed into a waterfountain The water fountain inscription however is grandiose Tothose fallen for freedom Glorify their sacred feat you unendinglyflowing Kamchiya

There is some justification for this Only 1048626 kilometres east of thespring is Aglikina Polyana or Aglikas Meadow where the Bulgarianhayduti or 983089983097th Century rebels used to meet They lived in themountains as far away from the Ottoman authorities as possibleexcept for when they attacked and robbed Ottoman convoys at the pass

Aglikina Polyana is heavily represented in Bulgarian heroic folklorehas a protected area status and hosts a regular folklore meeting

You can visit Aglikina Polyana from here but in any case be sure to

kneel at the water fountain which is the source of the Luda Kamchiyaand take a drink It is not that often that you can drink the cool clear waters of a river at its source

Top Semi-wild horses roam freely

around the Vratnik Pass

Bottom The beginnings of a 200-

kilometre Luda Kamchiya river

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Remote village pro983158idesunspoilt old-time atmosphere great ood by Violeta Rozova photography by Anthony Georgieff

Rural tourism in Bulgaria was barely known 1048626983088 years ago butin the early 1048626983088983088983088s it experienced an EU-funded boom But in thelate 1048626983088983088983088s the still ongoing economic crisis hit and now manyguesthouses are struggling to survive with the decreased numberof visitors In the western fringes of the Rhodope however is atraditional village which is still one of the best places for ruraltourism in Bulgaria

Leshten close to Gotse Delchev actually invented rural tourismin Bulgaria Since the mid-983089983097983097983088s it has been the first choice for anescape from the big city for all those interested in clean air delicioushealthy food and genuinely and intelligently preserved architecture

Truth to tell Leshten is hardly a village nowadays Only 983089983088 peoplelive there and most of them are septuagenarian In the 983089983097th and thefirst half of the 1048626983088th centuries however Leshten was a bustling placehome to more than 983093983088983088 people Unlike the inhabitants of nearbyKovachevitsa who built three- and four-storey mini fortresses to

protect their riches the people of Leshten were poor They had lessto lose and so they built houses of only two floors The ground level was for the livestock and the one above for the families

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Top A statue of two icecream

cones

Bottom The Buzludzha complex is

famous for its ghastly atmosphere

32

4

Kovachevitsa and Leshten both began to lose inhabitants at a greatrate after the Communist coup of 983089983097983092983092 when industrialisation andforced collectivisation striped the villagers of their livelihood andforced them to seek jobs in cities Kovachevitsa as a much grander village attracted the attention of Bulgarian film-makers in the 983089983097983095983088sand experienced a wave of new settlers mostly Sofia intellectuals who bought holiday homes there

Leshten was rediscovered much laterIn the mid-983089983097983097983088s a couple from Sofia found themselves in the

village with its ghostly and abandoned old houses They fell in love with Leshten as it had an unexpected advantage over crowd-pulling

Kovachevitsa Kovachevitsa is deep in the mountains and does nothave much of a vistaLeshten however has a marvellous view over the valley of the

Mesta River with the blue slopes of the Pirin defining the horizon983121uite unusually for the mid-983089983097983097983088s when everyone was either

leaving Bulgaria or flocking to Sofia where job prospects were betterthe couple moved to Leshten They bought some of the houses andturned them into holiday lets while preserving as much as possiblethe traditional architecture and opened one of the best restaurants

in Bulgaria This was in the long-disused local school next to thebeautiful and tiny St Paraskeva Church which dates from 9830899830963983094 and iscovered inside with primitive but captivating murals

1

1 The key to your room Each

detail in the 200-year old Leshten

houses has been preserved

2 3 The St Paraskeva Church

was built in 1837 and has been

listed as a local monument of

culture

4 Having breakfast while enjoying

the view to the Mesta Valley and

the Pirin is one of Leshtens many

pleasures

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The food in the tavern was locally sourced long before this became

fashionable Almost everything on the menu comes from the areafrom the wild berry juice and the thick sheeprsquos yoghurt to thetraditional egg noodles and the meatballs which are prepared not ofmince but of finely chopped meat

The restored traditional houses are on a par with the foods qualityIntelligently preserved yet having mod cons they smell of ageing wood geraniums and of woollen rugs warmed by the sun The wallsare whitewashed white linen curtains with embroidery shade the windows and the slightly crooked beams of the floor squeak quietly

under your feetRecently however more people decided to profit on Leshten

More houses were turned into hotels and as the competition grewone night the old school caught fire and burned to the ground Thetavern was re-established in a newer building with a beautiful viewof the Mesta Valley The food is still gorgeous the best the Rhodopeand the people living in these beautiful mountains can give you

This series of articles is supported by theAmerica for Bulgaria Foundation The

statements and opinions expressed herein

are those of the authors and do not necessarily

reflect the opinion of the America for Bulgaria

Foundation and its partners

1 Stone was used extensively in

building the houses of Leshten

and even the roofs are f rom rock

The technique was popular in

Bulgaria until the beginning of

the 20th Century but was later

abandoned It has been enjoying

a revival in recent years as surge

of interest in eco tourism has

brought it back to fashion

2 Leshten is a good basefor exploring of the Western

Rhodope with traditional villages

like Kovachevitsa and Dolen and

pristine wild nature all around

3 Fresco from St Paraskeva

Church with a didactic scene

advertising the advantages of

pious life

3

1

2

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Case study of senior Communist offi cialElena Lagadinova reveals unexpectedaspects of superpower confrontation

by Kristen Ghodsee all photographs courtesy of the author

One of the great ironies of the Cold War is that the twosuperpowers often championed issues that they cared little aboutin practice The East bloc defended the social rights of the worldrsquos workers while treating their own citizens like indentured servantsThe United States campaigned for political freedoms abroad whilebrutally oppressing or marginalising their own African-Americanand Native American populations at home Any rhetoric thatcould be deployed against the enemy became a weapon in the widerideological battle

Today historians and social scientists are studying the internationallegacies of these Cold War rivalries over social and politicalrights Whether it is labor conventions at the International LaborOrganisation political self-determination for previously colonisedcountries or the end to state-sanctioned racial discrimination in theUnited States or in apartheid-era South Africa the general scholarlyconsensus is that ordinary people ndash whether in the capitalist

Communist or developing worlds ndash benefitted from superpowercompetition An unintended consequence of American and Sovietgrandstanding was often real social progress

1

2

2

4

54

6 7

1 Elena The Amazon

Lagadinova in 1945

2 With Valentina Tereshkova

3 Delivering a speech in 1970

4 With the US activist Angela

Davis in 1972

5 Hosting a school for African

women leaders in Sofia in 1982

6 Lagadinova (left) with an

young Irina Bokova (right) at

the Third UN Conference on

Women in Nairobi in 1985

7 In Razlog with Kristen

Ghodsee in 2013

3

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Tousands o Hassidim gatherin Ukrainian city to celebrate

Jewish New Year by Dimana Trankova photography by Anthony Georgieff

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Dusty and drab devoid of any charm unless you count the 983089983096thCentury Sofyivka Park and the Georgian cheese pastries at the busstation the Ukrainian city of Uman would be a strong contender forthe most uninteresting place in Eastern Europe

But it is not the most uninteresting place in Eastern Europe ndash atleast not for a couple of days each year when it gets filled with joyfulcrowds of Ultra religious Jews flown in from as far as Canada BritainIsrael and Australia to celebrate the Jewish New Year usually inSeptember They all converge at Pushkin Street take out their heavyluggage and drag it to their rented rooms in small houses and tallSocialist apartment blocks Music is booming the smell of cookedfood comes from the tents of the openair eateries Happy people inthe streets greet each other smiling from ear to ear when they meetand embrace some old friend

Uman a city of roughly 983097983088983088983088983088 residents in western Ukraine is thefocus of pilgrimage for Hasidic Jews who come here to celebrate atthe tomb of one of their greatest spiritual leaders

Rebbe Nachman (9830899830959830951048626-983089983096983089983088) of Breslov was the great-grandson ofBaal Shem Tov the founder of Hasidism a conservative movementthat spread among the Ashkenazi Jews in Eastern Europe He showedthe first signs of having a special connection with the divine as earlyas 983089983095 and spent the next decades of his life moving around the areaof what is now western Ukraine and eastern Poland attractingfollowers Rebbe Nachmans travels even brought him to Palestine where he met and talked with prominent Jewish sages and scholars

In 9830899830969830881048626 he settled in Bratslav (as Breslov is more commonlyknown) and announced the creation of a new movement ofHasidism the Breslov Hasidism

When pilgrimage to Rebbe

Nachmans grave resumed in

the early 1990s the locals ofUman were amazed by the Rosh

Hashanah antics of visiting Jews

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Rebbe Nachman was incredibly popular but not everyone

liked him because of some of his more radical ideas one of whichencouraged people to feel free to find spiritual leaders for themselvesand to break with the tradition of the hereditary Hasidic dynastiesRebbe Nachman also encouraged the individual search for the divineHis teachings spread during tumultuous times The beginning of the983089983097th Century saw the spread of democratic ideas across Europe andfor the first time in centuries Jews enjoyed ndash at least theoretically ndashequal rights Many chose fuller integration into the modernEuropean society but for more conservative Jews these changesthreatened the foundation of their communities The teachingsof Rebbe Nachman were a sort of reaction to this trend blendingtradition with more individual freedom

Whether Rebbe Nachman thought of himself as a Messiah is stilla matter of dispute Some phrases from his teachings would makegreat Facebook quotes in todays era of soul-searching and positivethinking such as If you believe that you can damage then believethat you can fixrdquo or You are never given an obstacle you cannotovercome

In Breslov Rebbe Nachman saw his movement flourish andgrow with great crowds of followers assembling for feasts like RoshHashanah Chanukah or Shavuot when they eagerly listened to histeachings In 983089983096983089983088 however he had to move

Consumption had been devouring the still young Rebbe Nachmanfor some time and then his house was destroyed by fire He movedto nearby Uman a town of great significance for the local Jewishcommunity In 983089983095983094983096 about 1048626983088983088983088983088 Jews from Uman along withmany Poles and Uniate Ukrainians were killed by the UkrainianHaidamak rebels who had risen against the then Polish-LithuanianCommonwealth

1 Selling Rebbe Nachman-

themed techno music on Pushkin

Street

2 For many Breslov Hasidim the

pilgrimage is also an opportunity

to meet old friends and make

new ones

3 Rebbe Nachman is the

descendant of Baal Shem Tov the

founder of Hasidism a branch

of Orthodox Judaism wheremysticism is at the foundation of

spirituality

3

1

2

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