Belmeken ( bg, Белмекен) is a summit in the northeastern part of the Rila Mountain in southwestern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

with a height of 2,626 m. It is built up of granite. Its northern slopes are steep and rise over the Kutlinite cirque. The southern and southeastern slopes are oblique. To the southeast at an altitude of 1,923 m is situated the Belmeken Dam which fuels some of Bulgaria's largest hydro power plants — Chaira Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant (864 MW), Belmeken Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant (375 MW), Sestrimo Hydro Power Plant (240 MW) and Momina Klisura Hydroelectric Power Station (120 MW). Close to the summit is the Belmeken High Mountain Sports Complex at an altitude of 2,050 m, used for training, medical and biological research by athletes. The main starting points for climbing are the villages of Yundola and Sestrimo. In clear days, there is visibility to many of Bulgaria's major mountain ranges, including Pirin, Slavyanka, Vitosha,

Balkan Mountains The Balkan mountain range (, , known locally also as Stara planina) is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The range is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border betw ...

, Sredna Gora,

Rhodope Mountains The Rhodopes (; bg, Родопи, ; el, Ροδόπη, ''Rodopi''; tr, Rodoplar) are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, and the largest by area in Bulgaria, with over 83% of its area in the southern part of the country and the remainder in ...

, as well as reservoirs such as

Iskar Iskar may refer to: ;Bulgaria * Iskar (river), a river in western Bulgaria * Iskar Reservoir, situated on the Iskar River * Iskar (town), a town in the Iskar Municipality of the Pleven Province * Iskar Municipality * Iskar, Sofia, one of 24 muni ...

and

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Toba, ...

. Belmeken is inhabited by the highest-altitude colony of European ground squirrel in the Balkans, as well as by many species of birds, including

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a Cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan bird of prey (Bird of prey, raptor) in the family (biology), family Falco ...

common raven The common raven (''Corvus corax'') is a large all-black passerine bird. It is the most widely distributed of all corvids, found across the Northern Hemisphere. It is a raven known by many names at the subspecies level; there are at least e ...

and

Eurasian crag martin The Eurasian crag martin or just crag martin (''Ptyonoprogne rupestris'') is a small passerine bird in the swallow family. It is about long with ash-brown upperparts and paler underparts, and a short, square tail that has distinctive white pat ...

Citations

References

* * {{cite book , ref={{harvid, Great Encyclopedia Bulgaria, 2012 , title = Географски речник на България, том 5 , trans-title = Great Encyclopedia Bulgaria, Vol. 5 , last1 = Научноинформационен център „Българска енциклопедия“ (Scientific-Information Center "Bulgarian Encyclopedia") , first1 = , chapter = , year = 2012 , language = Bulgarian , publisher = Книгоиздателска къща „Труд“ (Trud Publishing House) , location = София (Sofia) , isbn = 9789548104272 Mountains of Rila Landforms of Blagoevgrad Province Landforms of Pazardzhik Province Landforms of Sofia Province Two-thousanders of Bulgaria