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According to Thracian mythology, the mortal lovers Hem and Rhodopis dared call themselves after the divine Zeus and Hera, who duly punished the couple by turning them into mountains separated by the River Maritsa - him the Balkans and she the Rhodopes . Straddling Greece and Bulgaria, the Rhodopes are the land where panpipes, Orpheus and the Orphic Cult originated, a region rich in gems and ores, but otherwise not fit for much beyond raising sheep and growing tobacco. Unlike the rest of Bulgaria, whole communities converted to Islam after the conquest, and of the numerous Turks who settled here many outstayed the empire's collapse - their descendants now constitute Bulgaria's largest ethnic minority. While hydro-electric schemes and tourism have pushed the Rhodopes into the twentieth century, the region is still, as Leslie Gardiner noted in the 1960s, a weird mixture of opposites: "donkeys and turbo-generators, Alpine flowers and tropical foliage, bikinis in winter and thick Turkish woollens in summer". While the ski resort of Pamporovo and the Bachkovo Monastery are well known to foreigners, the region's scenic highlands and picturesque villages have only been "discovered" quite recently. Of all Bulgaria's mountain ranges, this is the best for walking (the central and western Rhodopes especially), caving (around Trigrad ), birdwatching (near Madzharovo ) and other special interests. The Rhodopes are also the home of some fantastic folk music and festivals (mostly in August) at Rozhen, Mugla, Dorkovo , Madzharovo and Shiroka Laka . The last is deservedly renowned for its traditional architecture though it is far from the only village in the range with stone houses and bridges, nor even the finest example of the genre, an accolade which belongs to the Agushev Konak at Mogilitsa , near the regional capital, Smolyan . The eastern Rhodopes are less rewarding, although Kardzhali can serve as a base for exploring the weird rock formations in the region, and its museum has a fine collection of folk costumes, gemstones and historical artefacts. The legacy of its history is far from abstract here, as Bulgarians recall five centuries of oppression epitomized by the massacre at Batak in 1876, while the Pomak (Slav Muslim) and ethnic Turkish inhabitants of the Rhodopes have living memories of the "name-changing campaign" and "Great Excursion" of the late 1980s, when more than 200,000 of them fled to Turkey (most later returned). Though it's partly due to the state's efforts to hide what was happening in the region that the Rhodopes remained terra incognita for so long, even in olden times roadbuilders were sometimes attacked by villagers, who preferred to be as remote as possible - as the Turks living between Krumovgrad and Ivailovgrad still do. Tourist facilities and public transport vary from good to non-existent, and the recent growth in private hotels is still currently confined to a few areas. While a car provides greater flexibility, there's enough transport and accommodation for you to be able to visit almost all of the region's attractions, given sufficient time. Even with a car , one averages only 40km per hour, due to the poor terrain and the roads. Buses from Plovdiv run to Bachkovo, Pamporovo and Smolyan in the central Rhodopes; Velingrad to the west, and Kardzhali to the east; while Madzharovo can be reached from Haskovo. With the exception of the scenic narrow-gauge line linking Septemvri on the plain with Bansko in the Pirin Mountains, the limited train service in the Rhodopes is of little use.
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