The town of Kardzhali is situated along both banks of the Arda River in a small valley in the Western Rhodope Mountains. Karzhali has a population of 42 000 inhabitants. The town lies at a distance of 25 km from Sofia. Kardzhali is a district and municipal administrative centre of 117 settlements. The district is a unique combination of historic monuments from ancient times and natural phenomena.

Traces of the prehistoric, Thracian and Roman culture have been discovered in the region of Kardzhali. Undoubtedly the sacred Thracian site Perperikon is of the greatest interest. The sanctuary lies at a distance of 20 km from Kardzhali, 2 km from the village of Gorna Krepost and 6 km from the village of Perperek. The evidence of human activity in the complex dates back to V-IV c. B.C. The excavations show that a huge palace of several floors has been built on the site over the rocky formations. During the Middle Ages the palace is often transferred from the Bulgarian to the Byzantine limits and back. The remains of the medieval town of Monyak have been discovered in the Veselchane quarter. The architecture of the town is like the one of Preslav, Mesembria and Turnovo. The settlement is conquered by the Turks in 1379. In 1607 the settlement is registered in the Ottoman documents under the name of Kardzhala. In 1878 Russian Kazakhs lead by general Chernobuzov liberate the town which according to the Berlin Peace Contract remains within the limits of the vassal principality of East Roumelia. Kardzhali goes back to the limits of Bulgaria on 8^th October 1912.

The tourist sights of the town are: The History Museum, the medieval monastery complex "St. Yoan Predtecha", the temple "St. Georgi", remains from the medieval fortress Monyak.

Other cultural-historic sights on the territory of the district are: the medieval fortresses Kaleto, Ustra, Vishnegrad and Astra.

The most famous natural landmarks of the region are: the reserves "Valchi Dol", "Kazalcherpa", "Borovetz", "Chamlaka"; the rocky formations - "Kardzhali Pyramids", "Vkamenena gora" /Petrified forest/ and "Vkamenena svatba" /Petrified wedding/. The dam-lake " Studen Kladenetz" and the Krumovitza River are included in the Corine Programme and are important ornithological sites of the region.

Tourist sights

The rocky town of Perperikon lies at a distance of 15 km northeast of the town. The local people call the rocky peak with the name of "The Spirits' peak". The rock massif has been deified ever since the Neolith at the end of VI c. and the beginning of V c. B.C. and has been used for different purposes until XIV c. Perperikon is an abbreviation of the full name of Hiperpirakion(Hiperperakion), know from the Byzantine written sources from XIII-XIV c. This is a Greek word consisting of two parts - "hiper", meaning "extra" and "piros", meaning "fire". The word "hiperpirgos" has been used by Aristotle and his followers and has been related to cult activities and more precisely to fire rituals performed over the altar. One of the hypotheses is that the sacred town has had this name since then. However, no written evidence about that is found. On a map from 1801 done by the topographer Josef Romen Jolie from the Napoleon headquarters the lines of the Balkan Peninsula, the coastal lines and the location of rivers and towns are as accurate as on the present-day maps. On this map the town of Perperikon is marked along the middle current of the Arda River where is located the present-day town of Kardzhali. While Kardzhali town is marked at the eastern end of the Besika land where now stands the present-day Perperikon. Pergamon and pergamos are Thracian words which in the past meant several things:

1. tower, fortress, acropolis
2. The sacred Citadel of Troy - in the last decades of the XI c. B.C. the famous movement of people took place in Thrace. The contacts between the Troy and Thrace have never stopped during the whole II millennia B.C.
3. A town in Mizia

Perperikon has been strongly fortified at these times and might have been also called Pergamon. According to the archaeologists there is a third name of the sacred town - Zilmisos. According to some information from Ambrosii Teodosii Makrobii the main temple of the ancient God of Dionysius has been located on the Zilmisos hill. A Roman historian reports that for the ancient Thracian people the main cult has been towards the God of the Sun. In this famous sanctuary people paid respect to the god of the sun Apollonius during the day and to Dionysius during the night. Apollonius and Dionysius are the other two cults for the Thracian people apart from their cult to the Sun. The contemporary scientists have proved that behind the names of these two Greek Gods are hidden the names of ancient Thracian deities. The ancient Greek legends tell about the Dionysius sanctuary - the Sacred Rhodope Mountains. The sanctuary has been located in a vast oval-shape hall without any roof which was necessary because of the nature of the rituals performed inside. The sorcerer of the sacred place of Dionysius has done at last two important prophesies for the humanity - those about Alexander the Great and Julius Cesar.

The temple of the great mother goddess -on the territories of the villages of Nenkovo, Zhenda and Dazhdovnitza in the district of Kardzhali is a specific megalithic temple of the Great mother goddess where the culminations of the Orphic sacraments have been performed. The temple is located on a high plateau at the Tangarak Kaya site, meaning "the rattling rock". The cult towards the great mother goddess has been worshiped in the very centre of the sacred Thracian mountains. The historic sources mention two such mountains - Pangei, which is one of the names of Rhodope Mountains and Kogayon farther northeast in the land of the Getty tribes. The sacred Thracian mountains have had a precise analogy to the mountains of Mala Asia - Ida Mountains in Frigia and Timol Mountains in Midia. The caves of these mountains have been used by prophets, semi-gods and antropodemons. For the Rhodope Mountains such are considered to have been Orpheus and Rezus and for the sacred place of the Getty tribes - Zalmoksis.

The sanctuary is in the shape of a vulva with a length of 22 m. At noon a sun phallus is formed from a special opening of the cave pointing towards the internal part of the altar - the womb. Only during the shortest winter days the phallus reaches the womb and "impregnates" it. In the middle of the vault there is a semi-spherical niche and when one speaks right under it a supernatural voice is heard all over the sacred place. That is why the local people have given the sanctuary the name of the Rattling rock.

The Tatul megalithic monument in the village of Tatul has remained unknown until 2005 when it has been discovered during archaeological excavations. The rocky formation can be seen from kilometers. It has the shape of a truncated pyramid and is obvious that it is man-made. On the top it is elaborately leveled in a horizontal platform where a man can climb. Here a tomb has been hewn which has been a major object of worships. Decades before there are hypotheses that the tomb of Orpheus with a temple next to it is located in the vicinity of the village. The excavations show Tatul as a 4 000-year-old significant cult centre for the whole Mediterranean region. According to the ancient beliefs the Thracian leaders turn into godlike humans and antropodemons after their death. They have been buried at specially chosen paces which have been worshiped as sanctuaries. The condition of an antropodemon is transitory and after a while the dead kings became true god heroes. The names of such sanctuaries are heroons. At Tatul's heroon are buried the relics of a great Thracian king whose name have been well known along Rhodope Mountains and whole Thrace. The historical data points out that it is possible that he is one of the heroes of the Trojan War for many Thracian kings have taken place in that war. The ancient Greek poet Homer mentions the names of the rulers of the South Rhodopean region - Rezos, son of Eyone - the king of the bistons and Peyroy, son of Imbras who has governed the Thracian lands along the Maritza River. Some battled on the side of the Trojans other on the side of the Greeks but they are all known as great heroes such as Achilles, Hector, Odysseus and many other.

The medieval fortress of Monyak lies at a distance of 4 km east of the district town. The fortress has had a protected area of 5 hectares. From the fortress are preserved the external fortified wall, the towers, some water-storage basins, a pottery water-conduit and other. Military units have been deployed in the Monyak fortress. The fortress dates back to XII and the beginning of XIII centuries.

The Stremtzi Gold Mines in the village of Stremtzi - this is the oldest preserved gold mine in Europe. There are more than ten entrances and galleries longer than 500 m. The most precious coin of the Middle Aged is related to the gold mines of Stremtzi - the twenty-two-carat hiperperon, known as the "perpera".

The History Museum in Kardzhali is in an oriental-style building designed by the Russian architect Pomerantzev. The museum is established in 1965 and its collections are divided into three groups: historic, ethnographic and mineral. The museum possesses more than 37 000 precious objects.

The Art Gallery in Kardzhali has a collection of precious icons, Revival period prints, paintings, graphics and sculptures. Among the artists whose art works are displayed at the museum are: Svetlin Russev, Vladimir Dimitrov Maistora (the Master), Kiril Tzonev, Dechko Uzunov.

The Monastery complex "St Yoan Predtecha" in Kardzhali is built over the foundations of an ancient temple. The monastery has been a bishop's centre of the Ahridos district during the Middle Ages. It is one of the significant medieval monuments built in XI-XIV c. It has also been a bishop's residence. During archaeological excavations in 1998 has been found a tomb with bishop's clothes which are restored and preserved. They are made of silk with gold embroidery. The monastery "St. Yoan Predtecha" has been restored in 2000.

The Cromlech in the village of Dolni Glavanak is a group of dug into the ground stone blocks forming huge circles. The most famous cromlech in the world is Stonehenge in England. The date of origin of the cromlech is arguable because of the scarce archaeological findings around it.

The village of Benkovski in Kardzhali district is rich of archaeological findings of the so-called "civilization of the rocky people". In the region there are natural rocky formations, deified by the people, basins, gullies, rocky tombs and other rocky figures.

The Rocky tombs in the district of Kardzhali are one of the main symbols of the civilization of the rocky people. In Eastern Rhodope Mountains there are no mound necropolises typical for the Thracian valley, the White Sea Region and Northern Bulgaria. However, here have been discovered unique rocky tombs along the Arda River valley. Their number is 42, which are distributed in three regions. The first region is a group of 11 tombs on the territories of the villages of Pchelari, Dolno Cherkovishte, Potochnitza and Strazhevo. The second region is by the villages of Tatul, Nanovitza and Raven with 4 tombs. The third region has 14 rocky tombs in the region of the villages of Ovchevo, Vodenicharsko, Samodiva, Podkova, Mazhentzi and the Yagnevo neighbourhood of the village of Benkovski. The rocky tomb chambers have the shape of a truncated pyramid or of a dome-shaped ceiling. The foundation of the tombs is either round or square. Some of the tombs have a narthex, others don't. The flutes for the stone doors have been preserved on some of the tombs. In the interior of the tombs there are additional elements such as niches, burial platforms etc.

The rocky niches in Kardzhali District are one of the strangest and inexplicable phenomena of the megalithic culture of the Eastern Rhodpe Region. There are more than 1 5000 niches divided into 130 groups. The groups vary from having 3-4 to 100 monuments. The niches are hewn very high on well-shaped rocks or mountainous massifs in hard-to-reach places most often on the sun-lit side of the slopes. Predominantly there are trapeze-shaped niches with a height of 0,60-1,00 m and depth of 0,45 m. There are also bigger niches of up to 2 m height and depth of 1,50 m. Their distribution repeats the distribution of the rocky tombs. There are rocky niches on the territories of the villages of Dolno Cherkovishte, Dzhankata, Dazhdovnitza, Strandzhevo and other settlements.

The rocky basins/ sharapani/ in the Kardzhali region are of round or square shape connected to canals and overflow drains. The word sharapani in Turkish means grapes-squeezing presses used for the manufacture of wine. They are the most widely spread megalithic monuments and one can see them in hundreds of high places in the region following the other rocky formations. Some historians believe the sharpani are altars on which the Thracian kings performed sacrifices and the sacrificial blood has run along the gullies. The latest research shows that they have been used for the manufacture of ritual wine connected to the cult towards the Thracian god Dionysius.