Byal izvor () is a village in

Ardino Municipality Ardino Municipality is a municipality in Kardzhali Province, Bulgaria. It includes the town of Ardino and 51 nearby villages. Demographics As of December 2018, the municipality of Ardino has 12,792 inhabitants. Only 4,002 inhabitants live in th ...

Kardzhali Province Kardzhali Province () is a province of southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece with the Greek regional units of Xanthi, Rhodope, and Evros to the south and east. It is 3209.1 km2 in area. Its main city is Kardzhali. It is Bulgaria's sout ...

, southern-central

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. It is located from

Sofia Sofia 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 part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

. It covers an area of 19.928 square kilometres and as of 2007 had a population of 1713 people.

Landmarks

Byal Izvor is situated near several historical and natural features. Approximately 8 kilometers northwest, in the

Karaburun Karaburun (, Achirlí) is a municipality and Districts of Turkey, district of İzmir Province, in western Turkey. Its area is 421 km2, and its population is 12,200 (2022). The district area roughly corresponds to the peninsula of the same nam ...

area, traces of an ancient

Thracian The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between north-eastern Greece, ...

sanctuary and fortress have been discovered. The sanctuary, used from the

5th Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth Avenue * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a cont ...

4th Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

centuries BC, includes a rock with around 90 trapezoidal niches. These niches were used for placing pottery and tiles related to burial practices. About 500 meters from this sanctuary, the Kaleto fortress remains visible. The fortress is circular, with a diameter of 67 meters and an area of 0.5 acres, constructed from stones without mortar. Further north, around 20 kilometers from Byal Izvor, is the

Devil's Bridge Devil's Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges, found primarily in Europe. Most of these bridges are stone or masonry arch bridges and represent a significant technological achievement in ancient architecture. Due to their unusu ...

over the

Arda River Arda or ARDA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Arda (Middle-earth), fictional world in the works of J. R. R. Tolkien * Arda (band), a Russian heavy metal band People * Arda (name) Places *Arda (Maritsa), a river in Bulgaria and Greece *Ard ...

. Built in the

16th century BC The 16th century BC was a century that lasted from 1600 BC to 1501 BC. Events * 1700 BC – 1500 BC: Hurrian conquests. * 1601 BC: Sharma-Adad II became the King of Assyria. *c. 1600 BC: The creation of one of the oldest surviving astronomi ...

, it replaced a Roman bridge that was part of an ancient route linking the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

with the Thracian lowland. The site was designated as a landmark in 2003. The Alada peak, standing at 1241 meters, is the highest point in the

Eastern Rhodopes 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 ...

. Nearby, the Momini Gardi peak also provides notable elevation in the region.

References

Villages in Kardzhali Province {{Kardzhali-geo-stub