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Beyond the Thracian tomb, the road continues through a wooded valley, past an (unsigned) parking and picnic area, where a path leads downhill towards Demir Baba Tekke , a sixteenth-century Muslim shrine built on the grave of semi-legendary holy man Demir Baba. The tekke itself is a simple structure, a seven-sided tomb-cum-temple topped by a dome, but is accorded an other-worldly grandeur by the limestone cliffs which rear up immediately behind. A neolithic settlement has been discovered by the Pette Parsta spring at the foot of the cliffs, and the site was subsequently home to a Thracian sanctuary, so the place's importance as a spiritual centre predates the arrival of Islam in the fourteenth century. The tekke is sacred to the Aliani , a Muslim group whose rituals are open to the influence of the neighbouring Christian community, and both Aliani and Christian families visit the tekke on key holy days to picnic and dance to impromptu folk music. The most important dates are March 22 ( Chetirideset machenitsi or Forty Martyrs' Day), May 6 ( Gergyovden or St George's Day to the Christians; the spring festival of Hidrelez to the Aliani), August 2 ( Ilinden or St Elijah's Day, adopted by the Aliani as a midsummer festival), and a hastily improvised autumnal date to mark the end of the harvest. People come here all year round to perform certain rituals : strips of cloth are tied to trees or the bars of the tekke windows to ward off evil, and items of female underwear are passed through a hole in a stone in the courtyard to ensure fertility. Inside the tekke , pilgrims lay presents (socks, handkerchiefs or small pieces of embroidery) on the tomb of Demir Baba, chant prayers and light candles. Behind the tekke , a path leads up the side of the cliff to emerge on the plateau above, where the scant remains of Thracian stone circles and walled sanctuaries present further evidence that the territory around Sveshtari was of great religious significance to the ancient people.
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