Stara Planina National Park

About

It is widely believed this name was brought to the region by the Ottoman Turks but it may have ultimately derived from the Persian bālkāneh or bālākhāna, meaning "high, above, or proud house". In Bulgarian, the archaic word balkan (балкан) was borrowed from Turkish and means "mountain". The name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary (Balkan Mountains) and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan.

In Antiquity and the Middle Ages the mountains were known as Haemus ( Αἷμος ), derived from a Thracian word *saimon, 'mountain ridge'. The name of the place where the range meets the Black Sea, Cape Emine, is derived from Aemon.

There are two different folk etymologies for the name Haemus, derived from ancient Greek mythology. One suggests that the name 'Haemus' comes from the Greek word haima ( αἵμα ), meaning "blood", based on the myth of the battle between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon. The other attributes the name to King Haemus. See the Mythology section below for more details.

Other names used to refer to the mountains in different time periods include Aemon, Haemimons, Hem, Emus, the Slavonic Matorni gori and the Turkish Kocabalkan.

The modern Slavic name "Stara Planina" was first attested at the beginning of the 16th century by Antun Vrančić.

According to the mythology, the origin of the range is that King Haemus and his wife Rhodope were transformed into mountains, Haemus Mons (now known as the Balkan Mountains) and the Rhodope Mountains respectively, for daring to call themselves Zeus and Hera.

Another myth states that during the clash between Typhon and Zeus, Typhon hurled entire mountains at the god, but Zeus deflected them with his thunderbolts, causing Typhon's blood to spill across the land. The mountain was named Haemus after this event, as the Greek word haima (αἷμα) means "blood".

The Balkan Mountains are, technically, a chain of fold mountains —mountains formed by the compression and breaking of layers of rock. On a geological time scale, they are a rather young and recently formed part of the Alp-Himalayan chain which stretches across most of Eurasia. The Balkan Mountains can be divided into two parts—the main Balkan Chain and the Pre-Balkans (Fore-Balkan) to the north, which extend slightly onto the Danubian Plain. To the south, the mountains border the Sub-Balkan valleys, a row of 11 valleys running from the Bulgarian-Serbian border east to the Black Sea, separating the Balkan Mountains from a chain of other ranges known as Srednogorie (which includes Vitosha and Sredna Gora ).

The Balkan Mountains consist of around 30 distinct peaks; within Bulgaria, the range can be divided into three sections:

- The Western Balkan Mountains extend from Vrashka Chuka, at the border with Serbia, to the Pass of Arabakonak, with a total length of 190 kilometres (120 mi). The highest peak is Midžor, at 2,169 metres (7,116 ft).

- The Central Balkan Mountains run from Arabakonak to the Vratnik Pass, with a length of 207 kilometres (129 mi). Botev Peak, the highest mountain in the Balkan range at 2,376 metres (7,795 ft), is located in this section.

- The Eastern Balkan Mountains extend from the Vratnik Pass to Cape Emine, with a length of 160 kilometres (99 mi). The highest peak is Balgarka, at 1,181 metres (3,875 ft). The eastern Balkan Mountains form the lowest part of the range.

In their central and eastern sections, the mountains form a water divide between the rivers flowing to the Danube in the north and those flowing to the Aegean Sea in the south. However, they are crossed by Bulgaria's longest river, the Iskar, which forms the Iskar Gorge. Rivers that take their source from the Balkan Mountains and flow northwards to the Danube include the Timok, Archar, Lom, Tsibritsa, Ogosta, Skat, Vit, Osam, Yantra, and Rusenski Lom. The mountains are also the source of the Kamchiya, which flows directly into the Black Sea. Although not so abundant in mineral waters as other parts of Bulgaria, there are several spas such as Varshets, Shipkovo and Voneshta Voda.

Developments in modern times have completely changed the geography of Serbia, especially when it comes to waterfalls. Still, there are a number of waterfalls to be seen, especially in the western and central parts of the range, such as Raysko Praskalo (the highest waterfall in the Balkans), as well as Borov Kamak, Babsko Praskalo, Etropole Waterfall, Karlovsko Praskalo, and Skaklya, among others. The area of the Stara Planina has always been sparsely populated and inaccessible because of the rugged and forested terrain, but also as a location of the Serbian-Bulgarian border. As armies relinquished the borders, giving control to the border police, civilians were allowed to explore the area. As a result, higher and higher waterfalls have been discovered on the Serbian side of the Stara Planina in the years since, including Čungulj (1996) at 43 m (141 ft); Pilj (2002) at 64 m (210 ft); Kopren (2011) at 103.5 m (340 ft); and Kaluđerski Skokovi (2012) at 232 m (761 ft).

The mountains are crossed by 20 passes and two gorges. There are paved roads crossing the Balkan Mountains at the following passes (listed from west to east):

- Iskar Gorge ( Iskarski prolom ): Sofia - Vratsa (also railroad)

- Vitinya Pass : Hemus motorway (A2), Sofia - Botevgrad

- Zlatishki Pass (Zlatishki prohod): Zlatitsa - Etropole (closed)

- Shipka Pass : Gabrovo - Kazanlak (also railroad)

- Pass of the Republic ( Prohod na republikata ): Veliko Tarnovo - Gurkovo