Rhodope Mountains
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Rhodope Mountains
The Rhodopes (; , ; , ''Rodopi''; ) 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 Greece. Golyam Perelik is its highest peak at . The mountain range gives its name to the terrestrial ecoregion Rodope montane mixed forests that belongs in the temperate broadleaf and mixed forests biome and the Palearctic realm. The region is particularly notable for its karst areas with their deep river gorges, large caves and specific sculptured forms, such as the Trigrad Gorge. A significant part of Bulgaria's hydropower resources are located in the western areas of the range. There are a number of hydro-cascades and dams used for electricity production, irrigation, and as tourist destinations. Name and mythology The name of the Rhodope Mountains is of Thracian origin. Rhod-ope (Род-oпа) is interpreted as the first name of a river, meaning "rusty/reddish river", wher ...
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Vacha Reservoir
Vacha Reservoir ( Yazovir Vacha; before 1999: Antonivanovtsi Reservoir) is a body of water associated with a dam in Devin Municipality, south Bulgaria. It is part of the Dospat–Vacha Hydropower Cascade (500.2 MW) involving four more dams and seven power stations. The three other existing dams on the Vacha River are the Krichim Dam, the Tsankov Kamak Hydro Power Plant, Tsankov Kamak Dam and the Teshel Hydro Power Plant, Teshel Dam. Completed on 5 November 1975, the Vacha Dam is situated above mean sea level, above sea level. The dam was designed by Bulgarian hydroengineers, though their work was overseen by Russian, Japanese and Italy, Italian experts. It is a concrete gravity structure of height, making it the tallest dam in Bulgaria together with Krichim Dam. Its pumped storage power plant has a capacity of 160 MW. History The potential of hydroelectric projects on the Vacha River in southern Bulgaria was recognized by the Bulgarian government at least as early as the e ...
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Queen Rhodope
In ancient Greek and Roman mythology, Rhodope () is the wife of Haemus and queen of Thrace. She and her husband were punished together by being transformed into mountain ranges after daring to compare themselves to Zeus and Hera, the highest gods. The Rhodope Mountains, shared between Bulgaria and Greece, were named after this queen. Family Rhodope's parentage is not clear in ancient texts; a scholiast makes a Thracian Rhodope the daughter of the river-god Strymon, but it is not clear whether this is supposed to be the same Rhodope. In the '' Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', a Rhodope is the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and playmate of Persephone before her abduction. Rhodope married Haemus, and together they had a son named Hebrus, the namesake of the Hebrus river (now more commonly known as Maritsa) which now forms one of the northern bounderies of Greece. Mythology Rhodope married Haemus, king of Thrace, and became queen. She and Haemus had a good marriage that led to ...
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UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International security, security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It has 194 Member states of UNESCO, member states and 12 associate members, as well as partners in the Non-governmental organization, non-governmental, Intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental and private sector. Headquartered in Paris, France, UNESCO has 53 regional field offices and 199 National Commissions for UNESCO, national commissions. UNESCO was founded in 1945 as the successor to the League of Nations' International Committee on Intellectual Cooperation.English summary). UNESCO's founding mission, which was shaped by the events of World War II, is to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights by facilitating collaboratio ...
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Western Thrace
Western Thrace or West Thrace (, '' ytikíThráki'' ), also known as Greek Thrace or Aegean Thrace, is a geographical and historical region of Greece, between the Nestos and Evros rivers in the northeast of the country; East Thrace, which lies east of the river Evros, forms the European part of Turkey, and the area to the north, in Bulgaria, is known as Northern Thrace. Inhabited since Paleolithic times, it has been under the political, cultural and linguistic influence of the Greek world since the classical era; Greeks from the Aegean islands extensively colonized the region (especially the coastal part) and built prosperous cities such as Abdera (home of Democritus, the 5th-century BC philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of Protagoras, a leading sophist) and Sale (near present-day Alexandroupolis). Under the Byzantine Empire, Western Thrace benefited from its position close to the imperial heartland and became a center of medieval Greek commerce and ...
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Mesta River
The Nestos ( ), Mesta ( ) is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. It rises in the Rila Mountains and flows into the Aegean Sea near the island of Thasos. It plunges down towering canyons toward the Aegean Sea through mostly metamorphic formations. At the end, the main stream spreads over the coastal plain of Chrysoupolis and expands as a deltaic system with freshwater lakes and ponds forming the Nestos delta. The length of the river is , of which flow through BulgariaStatistical Yearbook 2017
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Upper Thracian Plain
The Upper Thracian Plain (, ''Gornotrakiyska nizina'') constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between Sredna Gora mountains to the north and west, a secondary mountain chain parallel to the main Balkan Mountains; the Rhodopes, Sakar and Strandzha to the south; and the Black Sea to the east. A fertile agricultural region, the Upper Thracian Plain proper has an area of and an average elevation of . The plain is part of Northern Thrace. The climate is transitional continental. The highest temperature recorded in Bulgaria occurred here: it was at Sadovo in 1916. The precipitation is a year. Important rivers are the Maritsa and its tributaries, Arda, Tundzha, Stryama, Topolnitsa, and Vacha. Important cities include Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik, Asenovgrad, Haskovo, Yambol and Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and i ...
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Balkan Peninsula
The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with 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 whole of Bulgaria. The Balkan Peninsula is bordered by the Adriatic Sea in the northwest, the Ionian Sea in the southwest, the Aegean Sea in the south, the Turkish straits in the east, and the Black Sea in the northeast. The northern border of the peninsula is variously defined. The highest point of the Balkans is Musala, , in the Rila mountain range, Bulgaria. The concept of the Balkan Peninsula was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, who mistakenly considered the Balkan Mountains the dominant mountain system of southeastern Europe spanning from the Adriatic Sea to the Black Sea. In the 19th century the term ''Balkan Peninsula'' was a synonym for Rumelia, the parts of Europe that were provinces of the Ottoman E ...
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Massif
A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain range, containing one or more summits (e.g. France's Massif Central). In mountaineering literature, ''massif'' is frequently used to denote the main mass of an individual mountain. As a purely scientific term in geology, however, a "massif" is separately and more specifically defined as a section of a planet's crust (geology), crust that is demarcated by geologic fault, faults or lithospheric flexure, flexures. In the plate tectonics, movement of the crust, a massif tends to retain its internal structure while being displaced as a whole. A massif is a smaller structural unit than a tectonic plate and is considered the fourth-largest driving force in geomorphology. The word "massif" originates from French (in which the word also means "massive"), where it is used to refer to a large mountain mass or compact group of connected mountains forming an independent portion of a range. The Cydonia (regi ...
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Rila
Rila (, ) is the highest mountain range of Bulgaria, the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, and Southeast Europe. It is situated in southwestern Bulgaria and forms part of the Rila–Rhodope Mountains, Rhodope Massif. The highest summit is Musala at an elevation of 2,925 m which makes Rila the sixth highest mountain range in Europe after the Caucasus, the Alps, Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees and Mount Etna, and the highest one between the Alps and the Caucasus. It spans a territory of 2,629 km2 with an average elevation of 1487 m. The mountain is believed to have been named after the Rilska River, river of the same name, which comes from the Old Bulgarian language, Old Bulgarian verb "рыти" meaning "to grub". Rila has abundant water resources. Some of the Balkans' longest and deepest rivers originate from Rila, including the Maritsa, Iskar (river), Iskar and Nestos (river), Mesta rivers. Bulgaria's main water divide separating the Black Sea and the A ...
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Geomorphological
Geomorphology () is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topography, topographic and bathymetry, bathymetric features generated by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or near Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do, to understand landform and terrain history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and landscape evolution model, numerical modeling. Geomorphologists work within disciplines such as physical geography, geology, geodesy, engineering geology, archaeology, climatology, and geotechnical engineering. This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within the field. Overview Earth's surface is modified by a combination of surface processes that shape landscapes, and geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence, and shape the coastal geography. Surface processes co ...
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Map Of Rila Pirin Rhodopes En
A map is a symbolic depiction of interrelationships, commonly spatial, between things within a space. A map may be annotated with text and graphics. Like any graphic, a map may be fixed to paper or other durable media, or may be displayed on a transitory medium such as a computer screen. Some maps change interactively. Although maps are commonly used to depict geographic elements, they may represent any space, real or fictional. The subject being mapped may be two-dimensional such as Earth's surface, three-dimensional such as Earth's interior, or from an abstract space of any dimension. Maps of geographic territory have a very long tradition and have existed from ancient times. The word "map" comes from the , wherein ''mappa'' meant 'napkin' or 'cloth' and ''mundi'' 'of the world'. Thus, "map" became a shortened term referring to a flat representation of Earth's surface. History Maps have been one of the most important human inventions for millennia, allowing humans t ...
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Hera
In ancient Greek religion, Hera (; ; in Ionic Greek, Ionic and Homeric Greek) is the goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the protector of women during childbirth. In Greek mythology, she is queen of the twelve Olympians and Mount Olympus, sister and wife of Zeus, and daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea (mythology), Rhea. One of her defining characteristics in myth is her jealous and vengeful nature in dealing with any who offended her, especially Zeus's numerous adulterous lovers and illegitimate offspring. Her iconography usually presents her as a dignified, matronly figure, upright or enthroned, crowned with a ''polos'' or diadem, sometimes veiled as a married woman. She is the patron goddess of lawful marriage. She presides over weddings, blesses and legalises marital unions, and protects women from harm during childbirth. Her sacred animals include the Cattle, cow, cuckoo, and Peafowl, peacock. She is sometimes shown holding a pomegranate as an emblem of immort ...
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