While many tourists visit Bulgaria for the sun and sand on the Black Sea coast there are also many tourists who would love to come in land and see the historical, more traditional aspects of this wonderful country. Bulgaria has some of the oldest towns and cities in Europe with many beautiful architectural monuments of years past, these vary from cave dwellings and Roman amphitheatres to cathedrals and monasteries. There are many places to visit throughout Bulgaria but the one city that captures my imagination is Plovdiv. Plovdiv is the second largest city in Bulgaria and is a city that is older than Rome or Athens. If you were to visit Plovdiv your first impression would be that Plovdiv is a city that is up to date and full of new buildings, but on closer inspection you would be overcome by the amount of ancient ruins from Thracian and Roman times that are still standing today. If you take the time to walk around the city you can see remnants of Thracian and Roman ruins lying behind newly built buildings everywhere, even the main post office in Plovdiv has ruins lying behind it, almost left to defend itself from the elements. In total there are 200 archeological sites in Plovdiv and many of these are of national importance, if not internationally. If you wander in to the old town of Plovdiv that is hidden away in the center of the city you will see some of the most impressive archeological finds of the 21st century like the Roman Amphitheatre that was found by a landslide in the 1970's. The Roman amphitheatre has a seating capacity of almost 7,000 and was built in the second century AD under the rule of the Roman Emperor Trajan. The theatre is still used today for theatrical shows and attractions. |
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