Ihtiman ( bg, Ихтиман ) is a town in western

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 Mac ...

, part of Sofia Province. It is located in the Ihtimanska Sredna Gora mountains and lies in a valley 48 km from

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. ...

and 95 km from

Plovdiv Plovdiv ( bg, Пловдив, ), is the second-largest city in Bulgaria, standing on the banks of the Maritsa river in the historical region of Thrace. It has a population of 346,893 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is the c ...

, close to the Trakiya motorway. Formerly a Roman defensive station guarding the important roads to the

Bosphorus The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...

, Ihtiman was then called ''Stipon''. It continued to play this role under the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantin ...

and the Bulgarian Empire, which however shifted its main defensive centre in the region to the Gate of Trajan hill pass. Following the Ottoman domination in the 14th century, the town's name was changed to ''Ihtiman'', which is thought to be of

Ottoman Turkish Ottoman Turkish ( ota, لِسانِ عُثمانى, Lisân-ı Osmânî, ; tr, Osmanlı Türkçesi) was the standardized register of the Turkish language used by the citizens of the Ottoman Empire (14th to 20th centuries CE). It borrowed exten ...

origin. The traditional and dominant religion is

Eastern Orthodox Christianity Eastern Orthodoxy, also known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity, is one of the three main branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholicism and Protestantism. Like the Pentarchy of the first millennium, the mainstream (or " canoni ...

Ihtiman Hook Ihtiman Hook ( bg, Ихтиманска коса, ‘Ihtimanska Kosa’ \ih-ti-'man-ska ko-'sa\) is a gravel barrier spit extending 700 m westward from the north coast of Burgas Peninsula on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarct ...

Livingston Island Livingston Island (Russian name ''Smolensk'', ) is an Antarctic island in the Southern Ocean, part of the South Shetlands Archipelago, a group of Antarctic islands north of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was the first land discovered south of 60� ...

in the

South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the nearest point of the South Orkney Islands. By the Antarctic Treaty of 195 ...

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest co ...

is named after Ihtiman.Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica:
Ihtiman Hook.

Climate

Ihtiman has a temperate continental climate with very cold and snowy winters and not too hot, relatively short summers. The average annual temperature is 8.9C.

Municipality

Ihtiman is also the seat of Ihtiman municipality (part of Sofia Province), which includes the following 27 villages:

Climate

Municipality

Twin-towns

Notes

External links