Balkan Mountains: full description

The Balkan mountain range, Stara Planina (the Old Mountains) is one of the most beautiful mountain systems in Europe. We learn more closely its main characteristics and distinctive features.

Introduction to the Old Mountains

Stara Planina (the Serbian and Bulgarian name of the toponym) is the second name of the Balkan Mountains or the Balkans, as they were called earlier. Today the last name was fixed for the Balkan peninsula itself. On the ancient Greek mountains are called Αἶμος , in Latin - Haemus. They are considered the largest mountain system of the Bulgarian state, the western continuations of which can also be found on the territory of today's Serbia.

The mountain range divides modern Bulgaria into the North and South, crossing this country from west to east. Previously, the Balkan mountains separated northern Moesia from southern Macedonia and Thrace. This mountain system is a natural neighbor, a continuation of the ridges of the Southern Carpathians, which are intersected by the Iron Gates (the narrowing of the mouth) of the Danube River on the border between Romania and Serbia.

Where the Balkan Mountains are located, it immediately becomes clear from the name of the mountain system - it gives the name to the entire peninsula on which it is located. Detailed coordinates: 43.2482 northern latitude, 25.0069 eastern longitude. The total length of the mountain ranges is 555 km. The height of the Balkan Mountains does not exceed 2376 m - this peak limits the mountain peak of Botev.

Characteristics of the mountain system of Stara Planina

Stara Planina, formed in the Cenozoic era, has a number of distinctive characteristics:

• Geological indicators: The Balkan Mountains are parallel peaks with seemingly smoothed ridges. Their composition is as follows: Precambrian and Paleozoic granites and crystalline schists, as well as Mesozoic conglomerates, flysch, sandstones, karst and limestones.
• Description of the relief: the northern half is represented by gentle slopes, passing into the foothills closer to the Lower Danube Plain. The southern ridges, on the other hand, are steeper and steeper.
• Climatic characteristic: the mountains serve as a kind of wall-climatic division between the northern and southern areas of Bulgaria. Their crests collect up to 800-1000 mm of precipitation annually; A few months in the year the peaks lie under snow caps.
• Hydrography: in the Balkan mountains, one can find the sources of such rivers as Ogosta, Vit, Lom, Osam, Timok - hence their channels are directed to the north, to the Danube. In the east, the Stara Planina is crossed by the Kamchia River valley, and the Iskar River in the west.
• Flora: the tops of the mountains are the meadows, the meadows. The northern slopes characterized by high humidity are coniferous (pine forests) or beech, oak, hornbeam forests rising to 1700-1800 m. The eastern regions of the Balkan mountains are covered with a thick cover of deciduous forests, characterized by an evergreen undergrowth, a network of lianas.
• Extraction of minerals: brown and coal; Iron, copper, lead-zinc ores.

History and modernity

For the first time the Bulgarian-Serbian name of the mountain system of Stara Planina was recorded in 1533. On the northern slopes of the Balkan Mountains, tourists can meet many monuments related to the era of the Bulgarian national liberation movement. Particularly stands out is the Monument of Freedom. In the mountains also found their shelter a number of monasteries - Kremikovsky, Sokolsky and others.

The mineral springs of the mountains on the Balkan Peninsula became the base for a number of well-known mountain resorts - Ribaritsy, Varshets, Teteven and others. Steneto National Park and scenic passes: Shipkinsky, Petrokhansky, Virbishsky, Churek, Republic's Pass and Iskar Gorge are also popular.

The western area of Staro-Planina is rich in karst, why mountain tourists seek to admire the amazing karst caves in these places: Rabish (here one can also find primitive rock paintings), Ledenik, Siyeva-Dupka, and others.

Mount Botev

The highest point of the Balkan Mountains was originally called Yumrukchal (in translation - Kulak Mountain). Four years (1942-1946), it was called the top of Ferdinand in honor of the king, who ascended to its summit. After that, again for four years was the Fist-mountain, until in 1950 it acquired its modern name - by the name of Hristo Botev, the revolutionary and poet of Bulgaria.

At the top of Botev there is a television and radio station, whose signals cover 65% of the entire territory of the Bulgarian state, as well as a weather station, which during the Second World War was captured by the fascists and worked for their purposes. Today in the last tourists can rest, hide from bad weather, have a snack. On its walls travelers attach memorable plaques about their ascents.

Regions of the Balkan Mountains

Traditionally, three districts of Staro-Planina are distinguished:

• Oriental. It is the shallowest part, diverging into separate spurs, one of which is the unique Horn of the Old Planet. Its point is the Emine Cape, the easternmost point of the Balkan Mountains.
• Average. The highest, picturesque and popular area of the Balkans, isolated from the other two. It is limited by the Iron Gate (the Gatekeeper) and the Zlatyshsky Pass. It is here that the tops of Botev, Triglav, Vezhen, Kupena (Aleko), Ambaritsa (Levski) are located.
• West. It starts at the Serbian border and extends to the Zlatyshsky pass itself. Here you can admire the summit of Mijur.

Mountains of the Balkan Peninsula

In addition to the Old Mountains, the following mountain systems are located on the peninsula:

• Dinaric Highlands - western regions (Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina).
• The mountain ridges of Pind are slightly south of the previous ones (Macedonia, Albania, Greece).
• The Rila mountain range is north (Bulgaria), it is the highest point of the Balkan Peninsula, the 2925-meter peak of Musala.
• Rhodope Mountains, the southern part bordering the Aegean Sea.
• Pirin - mountain systems of the Alpine type.

Thus, Stara Planina is by no means the only mountain system of the Balkan Peninsula. But it was she who gave the name to the latter, it is she who exerts a great influence on the climate of all Bulgaria.