Rudozem ( ) is a town in southern

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 ...

, near the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

border, located in the

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 ...

, where the Elhovo and Chepino rivers flow into the

Arda 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 *A ...

, and is part of

Smolyan Province Smolyan Province (, ''Oblast Smolyan''; former name Smolyan okrug) is a province in Southern-central Bulgaria, located in the Rhodope Mountains, neighbouring Greece to the south. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the ...

. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Rudozem Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 3,583.Bulgarian National Statistical Institute - towns in 2009
/ref> The name ''Rudozem'' is a

compound word In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme (less precisely, a word or Sign language, sign) that consists of more than one Word stem, stem. Compounding, composition or nominal composition is the process of word formation that creates compound lexemes. C ...

made up of Bulgarian ''ruda'' (руда) meaning "ore"; and the root ''zem'' (зем) meaning "land". It refers to the wealth of the area in mineral resources. Its former name is Palas. During the rule of the Ottoman Empire, it was part of the Ottoman

İskeçe Xanthi is a city in the region of Western Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi (regional unit), Xanthi regional unit of the modern regions of Greece, region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Amphitheatrically built on the foot ...

sanjak A sanjak or sancak (, , "flag, banner") was an administrative division of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans also sometimes called the sanjak a liva (, ) from the name's calque in Arabic and Persian. Banners were a common organization of nomad ...

Edirne Edirne (; ), historically known as Orestias, Adrianople, is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the Edirne Province, province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, Edirne was the second c ...

vilayet between 1867 and 1912. Rudozem Heights on

Fallières Coast The Fallières Coast is that portion of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between the head of Bourgeois Fjord and Cape Jeremy and lies on Marguerite Bay and the Wordie Ice Shelf. On the south it is joined by Rymill Coast, and in the nor ...

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 the town. Since 1 January 2025, Rudozem is linked to

Xanthi Xanthi is a city in the region of Western Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi regional unit of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace. Amphitheatrically built on the foot of Rhodope mountain chain, the city is divided ...

in Greece via the

Aegean Pass The Aegean Pass (, ''Belomorski prohod'') or Elidzhe (Елидже) is a mountain pass between the central and eastern Rhodope Mountains. It connects Smolyan Province in south central Bulgaria with Xanthi regional unit of Eastern Macedonia and Th ...

and the Rudozem-Xanthi border crossing.

Notes

Towns in Bulgaria Cities and towns in the Rhodopes Populated places in Smolyan Province {{Smolyan-geo-stub