The Valley of Roses
Historical facts

Perperikon

(or Hyperperakion or Perperakion) is in the Eastern Rhodope range, some 10 miles from the town of Kurdzhali. The roads from Sofia, via Asenovgrad or Haskovo, are fairly good and well maintained. Perperikon is perched on a rocky peak at 1,400 ft above sea level guarded at its foot by the village of Gorna Krepost [high castle]. The gold-bearing river Perpereshka flows nearby forming a valley some 7 miles long and 2.5 miles wide. This fertile sheltered place had attracted settlers in very ancient times, and today, dozens of sites clustered around the natural hub of Perperikon reveal layer upon layer of archaeological remains. Thousands of years ago, Perperikon was a massive bald rock. Such rocks drew prehistoric humans like a magnet and became an object of worship. The rugged wilderness of the Eastern Rhodopes must have cradled a rich megalithic culture long before the Thracian tribes inherited the land. The latest archaeological excavations at Perperikon revealed a site almost literally described by the ancient authors as the Temple of Dionysus in the Rhodope Mountains. A huge hall was carved into the rock and apparently left roofless, judging by the absence of holes for any roof beams in the surrounding rock walls. At the very centre of this open space, a magnificent round altar was sculpted from the rock, almost 6 ft in diameter and rising approximately 9 ft above the floor.