Mezek
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Mezek () is a village in southeastern
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 ...
, part of
Svilengrad Svilengrad (; ; ) is a town in Haskovo Province, south-central Bulgaria, situated at the tripoint of Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Svilengrad Municipality. Geography Svilengrad is close to the ro ...
municipality,
Haskovo Province Haskovo Province (; former name ''Haskovo okrug'') is a province in southern Bulgaria, neighbouring Greece and Turkey to the southeast, comprising parts of the Thracian valley along the river Maritsa. It is named after its administrative and i ...
. It lies at the foot of the eastern
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 ...
, just north of the Bulgaria–
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
border and not far west of the Bulgaria–
Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
border. Mezek is famous for the well-preserved medieval Mezek Fortress (Neoutzikon - Νεούτζικον) and its two 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, ...
beehive tomb A beehive tomb, also known as a tholos tomb (plural tholoi; from , ''tholotoi táphoi'', "domed tomb(s)"), is a burial structure characterized by its false dome created by corbelling, the superposition of successively smaller rings of mudb ...
s, the Mezek and Sheynovets tombs. The village is also well known for its own winery and the Mezzek brand of
Bulgarian wine Grape growing and wine production have a long history in Bulgaria, dating back to the times of the Thracians. There is evidence of Bulgarian winemaking since 4000 B.C. Wine is, together with beer and grape rakia, among the most popular alcoholic b ...
.


Fortress and Tomb

The Mezek Fortress, in area, is claimed to be among the best preserved Bulgarian medieval castles. It dates to the 11th century. Along with the Thracian tombs, it was studied by a team under archaeologist
Bogdan Filov Bogdan Dimitrov Filov (; 10 April 1883 – 1 February 1945) was a Bulgarian archaeologist, art historian and politician. He was prime minister of Bulgaria during World War II. During his tenure, Bulgaria became the seventh nation to join the Axis ...
in 1931–1932. The castle has nine towers, five of which lie at the vulnerable south wall. The Mezek Fortress was built out of stone, with two decorative lines of bricks on the outside. It suffered some destruction around 1900, when stones from the fortress were used for the construction of Ottoman barracks in Svilengrad. The Mezek Thracian tomb dates to the 4th century BC. It is a large, elongated tomb that includes a covered passage of , two rectangular antechambers of different size and a round burial chamber with a stone
sarcophagus A sarcophagus (: sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a coffin, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:σάρξ, σάρξ ...
. The number of burials of noble Thracians in the tomb was no less than four.
Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...
,
silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...
,
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...
,
iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...
and
glass Glass is an amorphous (non-crystalline solid, non-crystalline) solid. Because it is often transparency and translucency, transparent and chemically inert, glass has found widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in window pane ...
items and
pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...
discovered in the tomb are today displayed in the National Archaeological Museum in
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 ...
.


Nature

There is an eco-trail Sheynovets peak starting at the center of the village. It's 7 km in length and requires around 6 hours for a return trip.
Mezek Peak Mezek Peak (, ) is a sharp peak rising to 1555 mI.M. Howat, C. Porter, B.E. Smith, M.-J. Noh and P. Morin. Reference Elevation Model of Antarctica (REMA). Polar Geospatial Center. University of Minnesota, 2022Antarctic REMA Exlorer in Imeon Rang ...
in
Imeon Range Imeon Range (, ‘Hrebet Imeon’ \'hre-bet i-me-'on\) () is a mountain range occupying the interior of Smith Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It extends in southwest-northeast direction between Cape James and Cape Smith, and ...
on Smith Island in the
South Shetland Islands The South Shetland Islands are a group of List of Antarctic and subantarctic islands, Antarctic islands located in the Drake Passage with a total area of . They lie about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, and between southwest of the n ...
,
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
is named after Mezek.


References

{{Svilengrad Villages in Haskovo Province Thracian sites Thracian archaeological sites in Bulgaria Archaeological sites in Bulgaria