Beglik Tash
Беглик Таш | |
 A view of Beglik Tash | |
  Shown within Bulgaria | |
| Location | Primorsko, Burgas Province, Bulgaria |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°18′42″N 27°46′1″E / 42.31167°N 27.76694°E |
| Type | Monument |
| Area | 6 hectares (15 acres) |
| Site notes | |
| Public access | free |
Beglik Tash (Bulgarian: Беглик Таш, Turkish: Beylik Taşı) is a prehistoric rock sanctuary situated on the southern Black Sea coast of Bulgaria, a few kilometers north of the city of Primorsko. It was re-used by the Thracian tribes in the Iron Age.
At the end of the 19th century, the Czech-Bulgarian historian and archaeologist Karel Škorpil produced the first scientific account of the sanctuary, which was then known as Apostol Tash.[1] In 2002, Bulgarian archaeologists started excavations under the supervision of Tsonia Drazheva.
Etymology
[edit]The meaning of Beglik Tash is probably related to the "beglik," which is the tax on sheep collected by Ottoman authorities until 1913, and a Turkish word to describe an area made of large stones, "taşlar"[2] – a natural rock-formation consisting of megaliths of hardened magma that erupted from a Mesozoic era volcano.[citation needed]
Description
[edit]Most of the megaliths have traces of carvings for the purposes of Thracian rituals. There are also the remains of a labyrinth that visitors can pass through. A Thracian sun-clock is formed from huge stones. There is also a 150-ton rock that rests on the ground in only two places, and a "womb-cave".[citation needed]
Archaeologists have found ceramic artefacts from the Early Iron Age (10th–6th century BC), classical antiquity, and the Middle Ages, as well as a man-made stone altar at the end of the natural cave which proves that it was used as a place of worship. Every day at noon, a ray of sunlight enters the narrow entrance of the cave, and projects itself on the back of cave. According to the Bulgarian archaeologist Alexander Fol some of the Thracian womb-caves had the property of letting the sunlight in only at certain times of the day, a natural phenomenon seen by the Thracians as acts of symbolic fertilization of the Earth womb or the Mother Goddess by the sun phallus of the Sun God.[citation needed]
The site is an open-air museum maintained by the Burgas Historical Society. It is visited annually by 40,000 tourists.[3] Beglik Tash is located in the vicinity of two other Thracian sites: the city of Ranuli and the fortress of Pharmakida in the Strandzha Mountains.
Gallery
[edit]-
A general view -
A part of the complex -
Begliktash BG General Plan
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]- ^ "Minka Vazkresenska: Bulgaria's Stonehenge? in Vagabond, Bulgaria's English Monthly, 28 July 2009". Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 1 August 2016.
- ^ "Vazkresenska: "ibid"". Archived from the original on 2016-08-18. Retrieved 2016-08-01.
- ^ Archaeology in Bulgaria: ibid
External links
[edit]
- Pictures of Bulgaria – Beglik Tash
- Thracian sanctuary Beglik Tash
- Archaeology in Bulgaria, 14 March 2016: Ancient Thrace shrine Begli Tash near Bulgaria's Black Sea resort Primorsko attracts over 40,000 visitors annually
- Minka Vazkresenska: Bulgaria's Stonehenge? in Vagabond, Bulgaria's English Monthly, 28 July 2009