Strandzha ( bg, Странджа, also transliterated as ''Strandja'', ; tr, Istranca , or ) is a mountain

massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In the movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. The term also refers to a ...

in southeastern

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 ...

and the European part of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It is in the southeastern part of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

between the plains of

Thrace Thrace (; el, Θράκη, Thráki; bg, Тракия, Trakiya; tr, Trakya) or Thrake is a geographical and historical region in Southeast Europe, now split among Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, which is bounded by the Balkan Mountains to t ...

to the west, the lowlands near

Burgas Burgas ( bg, Бургас, ), sometimes transliterated as ''Bourgas'', is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the fourth-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, and Varna, with a popu ...

to the north, and the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

to the east. Its highest peak is

Mahya Dağı Mahya Dağı ( bg, Махиада, ''Mahiada'') (1031 m) is a mountain peak in Turkey. It is the highest peak of the Strandzha massif In geology, a massif ( or ) is a section of a planet's crust that is demarcated by faults or flexures. In ...

( bg, Махиада, ''Mahiada'') () in Turkey, while the highest point on Bulgarian territory is Golyamo Gradishte ( bg, Голямо Градище) (). The total area is approximately . The name of the massif allegedly derives from Istranca, the former name of the municipality of Binkılıç in

Çatalca Çatalca (Metrae; ) is a city and a rural district in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the largest district in Istanbul by area. It is in East Thrace, on the ridge between the Marmara and the Black Sea. Most people living in Çatalca are either farmers or ...

district,

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

province.

Geography and climate

The climate of the area is considerably influenced by the Black Sea and is predominantly

humid continental A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...

in the mountains and

humid subtropical A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

at the coast. Major rivers in the area are the

Veleka The Veleka ( , ) is a river in the very southeast of Bulgaria (Burgas Province), as well as the very northeast of European Turkey. It is 147 km long, of which 108 km lies in Bulgaria Rezovska The Rezovo (also Rezovska, Rezvaya and Rezve; bg, Резовска река ; tr, Mutludere ) is a river in the extreme southeast of Bulgaria and northernmost part of European Turkey. The river is situated in Bulgaria's Strandzha Nature Park. R ...

( long).

Strandzha Nature Park

Strandzha Nature Park Strandzha Nature Park ( bg, Природен парк Странджа ''Priroden park Strandzha'', also transliterated as Stranja Nature Park) is the List of protected areas of Bulgaria, largest protected area in Bulgaria spanning a territory o ...

, established in 1995 in the Bulgarian part of the massif, is the largest

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

in Bulgaria, embracing , or about 1% of Bulgaria's total territory.

History and culture

Inhabited by the

Thracians The Thracians (; grc, Θρᾷκες ''Thrāikes''; la, Thraci) were an Indo-European languages, Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe in ancient history.. ...

in antiquity, Strandzha is an area with a large concentration of ruins of Thracian sanctuaries, sacrificial altars, dolmens, and other archaeological objects. The mountains were the site of the Bulgarian Preobrazhenie Uprising of 1903 that was crushed by Ottoman troops. The current Bulgarian-Turkish border in the region was established after the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

of 1912-1913, when the northern part of Strandzha became part of Bulgaria. Culturally, the Bulgarian part of Strandzha is known for the specific architecture that can be observed in

Malko Tarnovo Malko Tarnovo ( bg, Малко Търново , "Little Tarnovo"; as opposed to Veliko Tarnovo) is a town in Burgas Province, southeastern Bulgaria, 5 km from the Turkish border. It is the only town in the interior of the Bulgarian Strandzha ...

Brashlyan Brashlyan ( bg, Бръшлян, "ivy") is a village in Malko Tarnovo Municipality, in Burgas Province, in southeastern Bulgaria.. Known as ''Sarmashik'' until 1934, today the entire village is an architectural reserve displaying characteristic Str ...

, and most other villages, the rich folklore and distinctive rituals, such as

nestinarstvo The Anastenaria ( el, Αναστενάρια, bg, Нестинарство, translit=Nestinarstvo), is a traditional barefoot fire-walking ritual with ecstatic dance performed in some villages in Northern Greece and Southern Bulgaria. The commun ...

(barefoot dancing on live embers), that preserve pagan elements.

Flora and fauna

The Strandzha Mountains have a rich and diverse

flora Flora is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous) native plants. Sometimes bacteria and fungi are also referred to as flora, as in the terms '' gut flora'' or '' skin flora''. E ...

and

fauna Fauna is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is ''flora'', and for fungi, it is '' funga''. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively referred to as '' biota''. Zoo ...

, unique within Europe. The eastern part of Strandzha is covered by the most northwestern extent of the

Euxine–Colchic deciduous forests The Euxine–Colchic deciduous forests is a temperate broadleaf and mixed forests ecoregion located along the southern shore of the Black Sea. The ecoregion extends along the thin coastal strip from the southeastern corner of Bulgaria in the west ...

ecoregion. 50% of Bulgaria's flora can be observed in Strandzha Nature Park and the area has 121 habitat types. In Strandzha over 600 species of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

are found, as well as over 400 species of

vertebrates Vertebrates () comprise all animal taxa within the subphylum Vertebrata () ( chordates with backbones), including all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Vertebrates represent the overwhelming majority of the phylum Chordata, ...

, 41 species of

freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments differ from marine conditions in many ways, especially the difference in levels of s ...

, 10 species of

amphibians Amphibians are four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arbore ...

, over 20 species of

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

, more than 130 species of breeding

birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

, and over 60 species of

mammals Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

. One of the reasons for the abundance of flora and fauna is the area's location at a bio-geographical crossroad between the European and Asian continents. The plant communities in Strandzha developed before Europe was separated from Asia by the formation of the

Bosporus Strait 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 T ...

that now connects the

with the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

. Land-ice never reached Strandzha during the ice-ages of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

and the

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. This lack of glaciations helped create the circumstances in which flora characteristic for the

Tertiary period Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

on the European continent has been preserved in Strandzha.

Honour

Strandzha Glacier Strandzha Glacier ( bg, ледник Странджа, lednik Strandzha, ) is located on Burgas Peninsula, eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica northeast of Ropotamo Glacier, south of Sopot Ice Piedmont and sout ...

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 contine ...

is named after Strandzha Mountain.

References

External links

Intelligent Life magazine feature 'Forest of Eternal Return'The website of Strandja National Park (in Bulgarian)Images from StrandjaMore images from StrandjaSNC Zlatna Strandja Discover Strandja

Strandja.hit.bgHiking in Strandzha MountainsStrandjaVillage.comGeneral info Strandja Nature ParkNature in Strandja
* {{Authority control Mountain ranges of Europe Mountain ranges of Bulgaria Mountain ranges of Turkey Landforms of Burgas Province International mountains of Europe Landforms of Kırklareli Province