Kaliakra cape

The Kaliakra cape is 12 km east of Kavarna and 60 km in northeast of Varna. It is the most beautiful and the strangest
place in the Bulgarian northern Black Sea. The narrow rocky peninsula is cutting 2 km into the sea as a wedge and
this promontory ends with 70 m high vertical rocks. They are conglomerates, formed in the previous shallow sarmatian sea.
Ferrous oxides give to the cape a crimson color. It is compared to a blazing sward, cutting the greenish-blue waters
of the sea, and the vertical sides make it impressive and inapproachable. Its name – Kaliakra –means "a beautiful cape".
It has been renamed several times during the centuries. Due to the inaccessibility of the rocks a fortress was built
as far back as the remote past. Thracians called it Tirizis, Romans -Acra, and Byzantines-Acres Castellum.
Its present name - Kaliakra - it accepted under the Bulgarian ruler of Dobrotitsa. In 1444 the troops of Vladislav
Varnenchik stopped near the cape during their campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

Many legends are related to the cape`s name. The most popular story relates of how 40 girls with hairs
and arms entwined jumped into the sea to evade falling into Ottoman hands.
Today an obelisk called "The gate of the 40 maidens" is erected in the entrance of the Caliakra Cape.
The discovered remains of the antiquity are exhibited in a small archaeological museum.

Today the region is a beautiful natural reserve where cormorants nest and starlings and blackbirds live in the caves.
Dolphins in the sea are really interesting because they are some of the rare representatives of the Bulgarian
Black sea fauna.

The region is also attractive with the bright flowers, blooming in spring and summer. A weather station,
a chapel, a lighthouse and a restaurant are built on the cape.

Source: visit.bg