Wanderings: Thracian Tomb at Aleksandrovo

May 26, 2019

A quick bike ride downhill to Svilengrad this morning. I saw 2 cars and 3 bikes on the road. While the road goes almost directly by the back of the train station, there is formidable razor wire fencing (1) requiring me to go a few miles around.

The morning train took me west to the small village of Nova Nadezhda, the closest station to the Thracian Tomb at Alexandrovo. A fairly steep ride up to the top of the ridge brought me to the Thracian museum, funded mainly by the Japanese government.

The museum includes a reproduction of the nearby tomb (2), including colorful paintings and a small collection of artifacts found at the site. The Thracians controlled the area before the Greeks and Romans, but little is known about them; most of our knowledge comes from paintings and artifacts found in the tombs. The museum was well developed, but does not appear to have many visitors. The site of the tomb and museum is on a ridge with commanding views in all directions.

I rode westward along the ridge then descended back to the river at Dimitrovgrad, passing by the aptly named "Eastern Industrial Zone." One factory smokestack was belching smoke that was an unearthly grey/yellow/green.

Connecting at Krumovo, I arrived by train at Asenovgrad, where the Thracian plain abruptly ends and the steep Rhodope mountains begin (3).

There is a pass through the mountains between the Thracian plain and the Aegean Sea that ends here at Asenovgrad; fortifications in the area date to antiquity. Tsar Asen built the fortress still visible in remnants today during the 1200s on a high cliff above the town at the entrance to the pass. I walked up in the company of many locals, who view the hike up to the Fortress and beyond as a good way to get some exercise on a Sunday afternoon.

(1) This is the closest station to the Turkish border and the fencing is designed to prevent illegal migrants from hopping off trains and disappearing into the countryside.

(2) The tomb itself is too small to visit without causing damage to the original paintings.

(3) On the north side of the Thracian plain, there is a similar very abrupt transition between the plains and the Balkan Mountains (a)

(a) According to Greek Mythology, Rhodope was the Queen of Thrace. Her husband, Haemus, compared himself to Zeus and his wife to Hera, which offended the Gods. As retribution, the Gods transformed the couple into the Rhodope and Balkan/Stara Planina mountains, forevermore to see each other across the Thracian plain, but never again to touch.