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The temple structure is from the 5th century before Christ (BC), is found near Starossel, a village south in the country. The structure can also contain a Thracian king grave. Professor George Kitov characteristics the exploration as magnificent.
Alexander the Great conquered Thracia in the 4th century BC, and the area became a Roman province in the year 40 BC. Today Thracia is located in Bulgaria, Hellas and Turkey.
Bulgaria is situated in south-eastern Europe, in the north-eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. Bulgaria borders to the north on Rumania (the frontier line runs along the Danube river and continues on land to the north-east), to the south on Greece and Turkey, to the west on Serbia and Macedonia (former Yugoslavia) and to the east on the Black Sea.
The Official Bulgarian web site for tourists, tells the following story about the Thracians: They were the earliest inhabitants of the present Bulgarian lands. According to the ancient Greek historian Herodotus the Thracians were a numerous people, the second biggest after the Indians. Information about the Thracians' life can be found in Homer's epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey, which is dated from the 8th century B.C.
Most reliable information about the Thracians has been obtained from excavations of tumuli or burial mounds scattered all over Bulgaria. They were places where members of the Thracian nobility were buried.
The Thracians believed in life beyond the grave and if the deceased was a man, they buried his favourite wife together with him, and his battle chariot with the horses to which it was hitched and various weapons and utensils. The Thracian Tomb near the town of Kazanluk, richly decorated with murals, is an exceptionally valuable monument of the Thracian culture.
The most warlike among them were the Odrysae whose power during the 5th century B.C. spread to the north of the Balkan Range (known in the antiquity as Hemus) and up to the Danube. The leader of the greatest insurrection of slaves in the antiquity, Spartacus, was a Thracian.Dionysus, the god of fertility, wine and drama, the cult of wine, the myth of Orpheus, the musical instruments depicted on the vases and murals, are a constituent part of the Thracian culture.
The most valuable part of their material culture, which has been preserved up to the present day, is represented by the tumuli near Kazanluk and Sveshtari (under the aegis of UNESCO), as well as the treasures found near Rogozen, Panagyurishte and Vulchitrun.
The first Greek colonies were established along the Black Sea coast in the 6-5th century BC. In the middle of the 4th century B.C. the Thracians fell under the domination of the ancient Macedonian kings Philip II and Alexander the Great. And in the middle of the 2th century B.C. the Romans conquered the Thracian lands and established control over the Balkan Peninsula.
After the division of the Roman Empire in the 4th century AD the Balkan Peninsula became a part of the Eastern Roman Empire - Byzantium. The recently explored Thracian temple in Bulgaria will certainly add more to the history, and even better: a new big attraction for travellers who enjoy explorations!
Hopefully there will be opportunities to visit this place in the nearest future.
Stein Morten Lund, 12 August 2000
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