Underwater Thracian city of Seuthopolis

View from the Shipka Pass, Stara Planina mountains, Bulgaria. The Koprinka Reservoir that covers the city of Seuthopolis is on the plane in the far distance, a bit to the right. The plane is also known as 'the Valley of the Thracian Kings'.

In the previous post I wrote about the Thracians, the ancient inhabitants of Bulgaria, and mentioned the 'Valley of the Kings' in Central Bulgaria (nowadays also a major Rosa Damascena producing region) - the place where a big concentration of the remaining Thracian architectural constructions can be found.

One of such constructions is the Thracian city of Seuthopolis (4th century BC) - shamefully, put underwater by the communist government. To be more precise, it was discovered in 1948 during the building of the Koprinka Reservoir (dam of the Tundzha river) - and it was marked as the best preserved Thracian city to date - but it was decided to continue with the industrial works anyway and the city was flooded with water.

Now Seuthopolis is about 20 metres underwater. There are no organised diving tours to the site as far as I know but the Bulgarian architect Zkeko Tilev has proposed a plan (one worth at least 50 million euros) to re-claim Seuthopolis from underwater and to make it a major tourist attraction (as well as that the move would enable Seuthopolis to gain a UNESCO World Heritage Site status).

According to the plan, a circular wall around Seuthopolis would be built within the dam - one, similar to those used in archaeological sea excavations - then the water from inside the wall removed. The city would become a 'deep' island within the reservoir. Visitors would reach it by boats and then observe the city from the water level (20 metres above) or they could take a lift down and explore the constructions immediately.   

The summary of the Tilev's proposed plan can be found here (and I strongly recommend to have a look at it as the concept is very interesting).

Worth mentioning is also the fact that the famous Thracian graves in the area (currently appreciated by many tourists, historians and archaeologists alike) are of people from Seuthopolis. That is yet another reason why uncovering the underwater city would make a perfect sense.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.

Thracians, the legendary inhabitants of ancient Bulgaria

A Thracian wreath, made of pure gold, 4th century BC. The leaves were designed to move in the wind, as those of a real tree would, and the tiny buds between them were meant to make a gentle jingling sound with every twist of the head of the wearer. This, likely, was a party accessory of a female. When it was discovered as part of a Thracian treasure, the archaeologists had to painstakingly unfold every single gold foil leave with special tweezers as the wreath had been battered under the earth.   

Bulgaria is very old. Today it is known as a Slavic country but the Slavs arrived to Europe only as late as the 6th century AD. Bulgaria, meanwhile, has been inhabited for at least eight thousand years (i.e. people had already lived here for at least 6.600 years before the Slavs' arrival).

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The legendary civilisation of ancient Bulgaria was that of the Thracians. The Thracians were Indo-European people who, among other things, were known to be excellent warriors and gold carvers. They dominated present day Bulgaria before it was conquered by the Roman Empire. Even within the Roman Empire the Thracians managed for a long time to retain strong identity and to remain the prevalent population in their own province.

The last of the Thracians died off and/or were assimilated in the 5th century AD. Some of their genes are now being carried by modern Bulgarians.

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Bulgaria is not short of Thracian treasures and ruins. Especially so the central part of the country, around the so-called Valley of Roses near Kazanlak, a.k.a. the Valley of the Thracian Kings. There one can find plenty of tombs of important Thracian people (one of them, the Kazanlak Tomb*, is on the UNESCO World Heritage list) as well as other Thracian architectural constructions. 

Read about the underwater Thracian city of Seuthopolis here.

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I have been hearing about the Thracians since my first longer-term stay in Bulgaria last year but I did not actually register the information until I got a rare chance to touch the thin leaves of golden wreath (pictured above) with my own fingers and to sip some wine from replicas of Thracian silver wine vessels (photo below); after this tactile experience the thousands years' history came to life and now I am a convert.

True to be said, although Bulgaria holds a lot of artifacts from the Thracian times, the civilisation itself remains mysterious. Only the said artifacts and written documents by their neighbouring cultures (ancient Greeks & Romans) inform us today about the Thracians as written sources by the Tracians themselves did not survive. Only very few Thracian inscriptions are known - and the ones that are known have not yet been deciphered.

Replicas of Thracian silver wine vessels (okay, not the best photo angle). The vessels were made of various metals, silver and gold being quite common among the rich.

* Once you are in Kazanlak, go up the hill where the actual tomb and its exact life size replica are side to side. Only the replica is open to visitors (unless you are on a very special mission - then they might unlock the real tomb for you).

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Next time I might also tell here a bit about the golden mask of the king Teres which is now stored at Sofia's Archaeological Museum.

Text and photos (c) Agne Drumelyte, 2013.