Tvarditsa Valley () is situated in 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 named after the town of Tvarditsa, its main settlement. It is the eighth of the eleven Sub-Balkan valleys in direction west–east.

Geography

The valley is enclosed between the

Balkan Mountains The Balkan mountain range is located in the eastern part of the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It is conventionally taken to begin at the peak of Vrashka Chuka on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia. It then runs f ...

to the north and the ridges of Yamurdzha, Mezhdenik and Shivachevski to the south, the three of them situated just north of the

Sredna Gora Sredna Gora ( ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the river Iskar (river), Iskar to the west and the elbow of river Tundzha north of the city of Yambol to the east. ...

mountain range. The former two ridges separate it from the Kazanlak Valley to the west, while the latter is the boundary with the

Sliven Valley Sliven Valley () is situated in eastern central Bulgaria. It is named after the city of Sliven, its main settlement. It is the ninth of the eleven Sub-Balkan valleys in direction west–east and is the second largest of them, after the Sofia Val ...

to the east. It spans a territory of 287 km², of them 118 km² are the valley floor. It reaches a length of 34 km in direction west–east and a width of 5–6 km. The average altitude varies between 200 m and 250 m. The Tvarditsa Valley is inclined in southern direction. It is divided in two parts, the Tvarditsa field to the west with an altitude of 250 m and the Shivachevsko field to the east with an altitude of 200 m. Along its northern slopes there are many

alluvial fan An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to Semi-arid climate, semiar ...

s formed by the rivers streaming from the Balkan Mountains. The slopes are built up of

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

Paleogene The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the fir ...

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

gneiss Gneiss (pronounced ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. This rock is formed under p ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and conglomerates and are subject to active erosion. The soils are mostly

alluvial Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is ...

. The valley is drained by several left tributaries of the

Tundzha The Tundzha ( ; ; ''Tonsus'' in antiquity) is a river in southeastern Bulgaria and northwesternmost Turkey, a left tributary of the Maritsa. With a length of 390 km, of which 350 km are in Bulgaria, it is Maritsa's longest tributary, ...

of 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 ...

basin — the Radova reka, the Tvardishka reka and the Byala reka. On the boundary with the Kazanlak Valley on the river Tundzha is located the

Zhrebchevo Reservoir Zhrebchevo Reservoir () is a large dam and reservoir in central Bulgaria, situated between the Sub-Balkan valleys of Kazanlak and Tvarditsa that lie between the Balkan Mountains to the north and the Sredna Gora mountain range to the south. Adm ...

Settlements, transportation and economy

Submerged church Sveti Ivan Rilski Zapalnya

Administratively, the Tvarditsa Valley falls in

Sliven Sliven ( ) is List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, the eighth-largest city in Bulgaria and the administrative and industrial centre of Sliven Province and municipality in Northern Thrace. It is situated in the Sliven Valley at the foothills of th ...

and

Stara Zagora Province Stara Zagora (), formerly known as the Stara Zagora okrug, is a province of south-central Bulgaria. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre—the city of Stara Zagora—the sixth-biggest town in the country. The provin ...

s. There are three towns — Tvarditsa, Gurkovo and Shivachevo, and three villages — Konare, Orizari and Sborishte. The valley is served by three roads of the national network, as well as local roads. From west to east between

Nikolaevo Nikolaevo ( ) is a small town in Stara Zagora Province, South-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 D ...

and Bliznets passes a 20 km stretch of the first class I-6 road Gyueshevo–

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 ...

–

Karlovo Karlovo ( ) is a historically important town in central Bulgaria located in a fertile valley along the river Stryama at the southern foot of the Balkan Mountains. It is administratively part of Plovdiv Province and has a population of about 1 ...

–

Burgas Burgas (, ), sometimes transliterated as Bourgas, is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast in the region of Northern Thrace and the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, fourth-largest city in Bulgaria after Sofia, Plovdiv, an ...

. The westernmost reaches are traversed by a 6 km section of the second class II-55 road

Debelets Debelets ( ) is a town in northern Bulgaria, part of Veliko Tarnovo Municipality in Veliko Tarnovo Province. It is situated in the bottom side of the Belichinata valley near to the Belitsa (Yantra), Belitsa river. North from the town is situate ...

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Nova Zagora Nova Zagora ( ) is a town located in the southeastern plains of Bulgaria, in Sliven Province. It is the administrative centre of Nova Zagora Municipality. As of December 2009, the town had a population of 19,562 inhabitants, while the entire mun ...

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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 ...

. From north to south in its center is a 14.5 km section of the third class III-662 road Nova Zagora–Tvarditsa– Elena. A section of railway line No. 3 Iliyantsi (Sofia)–Karlovo–

–

Karnobat Karnobat ( ) is a town in the Burgas Province, Southeastern Bulgaria. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Karnobat Municipality. According to the 2021 census, the town had a population of 16,483. Geography Karnobat municipality i ...

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Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city ** Varna Province ** Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna ** Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis * Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy * Varna (Šabac), a village in Serbia Asia * Var ...

served by the

Bulgarian State Railways The Bulgarian State Railways (, abbreviated as БДЖ, BDZ or BDŽ) are Bulgaria's state railway company and former largest railway carrier in the country, established as an entity in 1888. The company's headquarters are located in the capital So ...

crosses the valley in direction west–east between the railway stations of Nikolaevo and Chumerna. The main industry is textiles, based in Tvarditsa, with export markets in Sweden, France, Canada, Greece and Serbia. Agriculture is well developed, the main crops being grain, grapes and orchards — cherries, sour cherries, apples, walnuts.

Citations

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tvarditsa Valley Valleys of Bulgaria Landforms of Sliven Province Landforms of Stara Zagora Province