Publicado a 23/12/2015
An Ancient Thracian rock step pyramid with a rock sun
temple dating back to 2500 BC has been identified in the Eastern Rhodope
Mountains in Southern Bulgaria by an expedition of historians and
thracologists.
Source: http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015...
Source: http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2015...
THRACOLOGISTS DISCOVER ANCIENT
THRACIAN ROCK STEP PYRAMID IN EASTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS IN SOUTHERN BULGARIA
The newly found Thracian rock step
pyramid was hacked into a rocky plateau – here viewed from a distance. Photo:
TV grab from BNT 2
An Ancient Thracian rock step pyramid with a rock sun temple
dating back to 2500 BC has been identified in theEastern Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria by an expedition of historians and thracologists.
The Thracian pyramid in question was shaped out of the natural rocks in the mountain near the town of Kovil, Krumovgrad Municipality, Kardzhali
District.
It is about 15 meters tall, and
consists of five stepped terraces,
with the sun temple hacked into the rocks inside it, according to Prof. Vasil Markov, a historian specializing in the civilization of Ancient Thrace.
Markov is the head of the University Research Center for Ancient
European and Eastern Mediterranean Cultures at
the Southwest University “Neofit
Rilski” based in Bulgaria’s
Blagoevgrad.
In the recent years, the Center has
explored and identified a large number of Ancient Thracian monuments such asrock shrines in the mountains of Rila, Pirin, and the Western Rhodope Mountains (all located in Southwest Bulgaria).
A side view of the Thracian rock
pyramid, with the sun temple visible at its base. Photo: TV grab from BNT
2
In late 2015, it organized an
expedition in the Eastern Rhodope
Mountains in order to explore the known and unknown Ancient Thracian shrines there, and compare
them to those in Bulgaria’s
Southwest.
“We have come back with
really interesting results which, to be honest, have surprised even me,
especially with respect to the dating and the features of these monuments,” Markov has said, presenting the
expedition’s findings in a TV interview forBNT 2.
“These are a type of
pyramids. In science, they are also known as terraced sacrificial altars or pyramid-like structures. But the
one that we found near the town of Kovil in
the Eastern Rhodopes is
a pyramid all the way.
It is aterraced step pyramid towering
at 15 meters, with five levels, with a sun temple hacked [into the rock] inside it,”the historian has explained.
In his
words, the Ancient Thracian
pyramid was itself hacked into the rocks of a large plateau,
and was the center of a large territory considered to have been sacred by the Thracians.
It contains lots of sacrificial altars, “vessels” hacked into the
“holy rocks” for the making of “holy wine”, and other megalithic structures.
Ancient Thracian rock vessels hacked
into the rocks for making “holy wine”. Photos: TV grabs from BNT
2
Inside
the 15-meter rock step pyramid near Bulgaria’s Kovil there is a “womb cave” which is “the same” as the
already famous “Womb Cave”
Thracian shrine near the town of Ilinitsa in the Kardzhali District, also in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains.
The Womb Cave near Ilinitsa, which was apparently worshiped by the Ancient Thracians, consists of a
natural vertical crack in the rocks leading
into a cave whose
entrance was shaped artificially to resemble a woman’s womb. Inside the cave, there is an altar.
The sunlight reaches the bottom of the cave only at a certain
part of the day resembling a solar
phallus which was seen by the ancient people as symbolizing the copulation and holy marriage of the
Sun and the Mountain (i.e. the Earth).
According to Markov, the newly identified Thracian step pyramid contains
an identical womb cave that
is just smaller. He notes that when viewed from the inside the sunlight
resembles a phallus copulating with the cave as part
of the above-mentioned “holy
marriage”, according to the Thracians’ beliefs.
A photo of the womb cave discovered
at the newly identified Thracian rock pyramid near Bulgaria’s Kovil. Compare it
with the Womb Cave near Ilinitsa below. Photo: TV grab from BNT
2
Compare: The already known womb cave
at the Womb Cave Thracian Shrine near Ilinitsa. A view of the cave entrance
from the inside. Photo: Ivo Filipov, Wikipedia
Ancient Thracian ceramics from the
Bronze Age found in the newly identified rock pyramid. Photo: TV grab from BNT
2
During their exploration of the terraced pyramid, his team has found ceramics from different time
periods – the Chalcolithic
(Aeneolithic, Copper Age), the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and Thracian-Roman
period (i.e. the Late Antiquity).
The ancient religious complex ceased
to function at the end of the pagan period,
with the adoption of Christianity.
Markov says the sun temple of the
step pyramid near Kovil is dated back to 2500 BC,
which is roughly the same time as the time when the Great Pyramid in Giza built ca.
2580-2560 BC in Ancient Egypt.
The research expedition has also explored that
already well known Thracian shrine
near the town of Tatul, Momchilgrad Municipality, Kardzhali District,
also located in the Eastern
Rhodope Mountains.
Structures from the Tatul Rock
Shrine, an already well-known Ancient Thracian shrine in the Eastern Rhodope
Mountains which also features pyramid-like structures. Photos: TV grabs from BNT 2
The Tatul shrine also has the form of
a terraced pyramid but
is smaller than the newly found one near Kovil. AnotherThracian
step pyramid shrine in the Eastern Rhodopes is located near the town of Angel Voyvoda, Haskovo District.
The Bulgarian researchers have also traveled to Turkey, to
the region of the ancient kingdom
of Phrygia (ca. 1200-700 BC) in West-Central Anatolia in order to compare the Ancient Thracian monuments in Southern
Bulgaria with those of the Phrygians, who, according to Markov, may, too, have been Thracians.
An ancient terraced monument from
Ancient Phrygia found in Anatolia, today’s Turkey, which the Bulgarian scholars
think are comparable to the pyramid-like structures in the Rhodope Mountains in
Southern Bulgaria. Photo: TV grab from BNT 2
“I can safely say that
the terraced monument that
we have found in the Eastern
Rhodope Mountains is the largest of all those built by the Thracians, of all the known monuments in the
Balkan-Anatolian Region,” says the historian.
He explains that while parts of the
vast complex of rock shrines in
the Eastern Rhodope Mountains have
been known to the locals, and have been explored by archaeologists, the Thracian rock step pyramid near Bulgaria’s Kovil has somehow been
missed by the scientists until now.
“I was stunned when I
stood in front of this thing. I am unable to offer an explanation as to why it
has been missed by thescience in
Bulgaria. There is just no explanation,” Markov concludes.
Also check out our other recent story about newly
identified ancient megaliths near Zlatosel in Southern Bulgaria:
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