Perpericon - Bulgaria

Perpericon is located 15 km northeast of today's city. Kyrdzali , in a valley 10 km long and wide 3-4 km (ok. 300-370 m above mr) through which flows the gold-bearing Perperishka River ( Perperischka ). Perperikon is located on the right bank of the river, above the village of Gorna Krepost . Its area is about 12 km². The megalith complex, the largest on the Balkan Peninsula, has an area of ​​5 km². The Thracian sanctuary is located 470 m above sea level, on a cliff, at the top of a hill.
Perperikon is one of the 100 national tourist sites in Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Thracians categorically refuse to call the Perperikon site , because that is the much later name, given in the place probably by the Roman conquerors of Thrace. Perperec is the ancient Thracian name of the site, and according to Professor Alexander Fol is his only possible name. In a lecture-conversation at the Astronomical Observatory " Yuri Gagarin " ( Stara Zagora ), held on February 11, 2004, the "Father of Thracology " explicitly emphasized that "per" and "ber" came from the Indo-European "per" is a "feast" in the Hebrew language and means "rock." According to Professor Fole, the double "per" in the name of Perperek is:"Perperikon is the late name that appeared in the Byzantine era.

Perperek is also a male Thracian name found in Homer . Professor Fall reminds in his lecture that the name of all Thrace is Perke , one of the names, which means the "rock", which is preserved in names such as Perperek, Persenk , Perrin (dialect, today Pirin ) and Perister - the mountain near Bitola (today's Republic of Macedonia ).

According to the interpretation of Nikolai Ovcharov late the place name Perperikon is associated with gold coins perpera known as Zlatitsa in medieval Bulgaria.
Perperec inhabited the Halkolithic era before 8000 and reached its peak in the late Antiquity, when it was a city center within the Thracian province of the Roman Empire.

A sanctuary was built in the late Bronze Age and the early Iron Age on the hill. Nikolay Ovcharov considers this to be the sanctuary devoted to god Dionysus of the Thracian tribe of Sats (whose priestly family was the Bess ), which is mentioned many times in the ancient Greek sources. (Macrobius reports that: "I learn that in the Thracian Sun and Libertus are considered the same god, the Thracians call it Sebadius, as Alexander Polyhistor writes, and this god of Mount Zelimimos is a devoted temple in the form of a rotunda whose roof the environment is open ") [4] [5] . The sanctuary is sought after for a century. It, along with that of Apollo in Delphi , is the two most significantoracle in antiquity. According to ancient legends, in the altar, on a special altar were made wine-fiery rites and according to the height of the flames it was judged the power of the prophecy.

Nikolay Ovcharov translates many arguments that the sanctuary of Dionysus is Perperek, relying on finds and ancient sources. Euripides in his tragedy "Hekaba" (424 BC) wrote, "surprised that" ... some say that Dionysus-Oracle is located in Pangaion ( Pangaion Hills ) mountain, while others say it is in the Hemus ( Stara Planina ). "However, according to the works of later Roman historians, Dionysius-the oracle in the Rhodopes is the most important sanctuary. One of the main accounts of the Rhodope sanctuary of Dionysus is the Roman historian Svetiti Tranquil . In his book The Twelve Cæsars , he describes the prophecy given to the father of the First Roman EmperorAugustus that his son will be master of the world, as a sign of this were high flames during the offering of the sacrifice on the altar [6] . In the same sanctuary of Alexander of Macedon, it is predicted that he will conquer the familiar world from Egypt to India [7] . In the "description of the Xerxes' campaign against the Hellenes in 480 BC. Herodotus also mentions the diocese of Dionysus, "who" was on a high peak in the mountain, with the bibles in the sanctuary, the priest giving predictions just as in the Delphic oracle , there is nothing different. "

Leading tracologists, including Professor Valeria Fol, are strongly opposed to this Ovcharov theory. According to Professor Valeria Fol, Perperec is not the Dionysian sanctuary, although the site has a long life as a sanctuary, as a city and church center. She stresses that in Persenk Peak there are the ruins of a massive sanctuary, along which passes an ancient sacred road and there are extremely well preserved very early Thracian fortresses. This route, according to Professor Valeria Fol, was one of the most actively used ancient roads in the Rhodope Mountains and the entire mountain can be crossed by it. She emphasizes that it is precisely along this road under Persenk that the great sanctuary of Dionysus must be sought.

Nikolay Ovcharov spoke of the theory that the place was also the Episcopal city, where in the early 5th century Nikita Remesiansky baptized Bessi and gave them the "Thracian alphabet" he created and worship in Thracian language . [8] The temple of the ancient city is probably dedicated to the Thracian-world god Zagrey . Macrobius (400 AD) reports an oval hall-shaped sanctuary.

The sacred millennial city was destroyed by the Ottoman Turks in 1362 and its inhabitants were kidnapped in slavery. [9] After several decades, the site is completely desolate. In the late 19th century, Constantine Irechek reported the medieval fortress of Hyperperikon (Perperikon), although he did not personally visit the area. An interesting point in his description is the fact that among the predominant Turkish toponyms the only surviving Turkish is the hydropenem Perperek-dere , the name of the river, which formed the beautiful valley above which the hard rock carved in the rocks rises.

Excavations of the site began in 2000 and are accompanied by many controversial issues concerning archaeological research, conservation, conservation and exposure of the site. In 2006, a team of " Worldwide and in our country " discovered eyewitnesses who claimed that the tombs were robbed in the 1990s.