1.
Bulgaria
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Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, with a territory of 110,994 square kilometres, Bulgaria is Europes 16th-largest country. Organised prehistoric cultures began developing on current Bulgarian lands during the Neolithic period and its ancient history saw the presence of the Thracians, Greeks, Persians, Celts, Romans, Goths, Alans and Huns. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 led to the formation of the Third Bulgarian State, the following years saw several conflicts with its neighbours, which prompted Bulgaria to align with Germany in both world wars. In 1946 it became a one-party socialist state as part of the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, in December 1989 the ruling Communist Party allowed multi-party elections, which subsequently led to Bulgarias transition into a democracy and a market-based economy. Bulgarias population of 7.2 million people is predominantly urbanised, most commercial and cultural activities are centred on the capital and largest city, Sofia. The strongest sectors of the economy are industry, power engineering. The countrys current political structure dates to the adoption of a constitution in 1991. Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic with a high degree of political, administrative. Human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria can be traced back to the Paleolithic, animal bones incised with man-made markings from Kozarnika cave are assumed to be the earliest examples of symbolic behaviour in humans. Organised prehistoric societies in Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture, Vinča culture, the latter is credited with inventing gold working and exploitation. Some of these first gold smelters produced the coins, weapons and jewellery of the Varna Necropolis treasure and this site also offers insights for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies. Thracians, one of the three primary groups of modern Bulgarians, began appearing in the region during the Iron Age. In the late 6th century BC, the Persians conquered most of present-day Bulgaria, and kept it until 479 BC. After the division of the Roman Empire in the 5th century the area fell under Byzantine control, by this time, Christianity had already spread in the region. A small Gothic community in Nicopolis ad Istrum produced the first Germanic language book in the 4th century, the first Christian monastery in Europe was established around the same time by Saint Athanasius in central Bulgaria. From the 6th century the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled in the region, in 680 Bulgar tribes under the leadership of Asparukh moved south across the Danube and settled in the area between the lower Danube and the Balkan, establishing their capital at Pliska
2.
Suhindol Municipality
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Suhindol Municipality is a small municipality in Veliko Tarnovo Province, Central-North Bulgaria, located in the transition between the Danubian Plain and the area of the so-called Fore-Balkan. It is named after its administrative centre - the town of Suhindol, the municipality embraces a territory of 157.55 km² with a population of 3,046 inhabitants, as of December 2009. The Hemus motorway is planned to cross the area connecting the city of Sofia with the port of Varna on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Suhindol Municipality includes the following 6 places, The following table shows the change of the population during the last four decades, provinces of Bulgaria Municipalities of Bulgaria List of cities and towns in Bulgaria Official website
3.
Danubian Plain (Bulgaria)
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The Danubian Plain constitutes the northern part of Bulgaria, situated north of the Balkan Mountains and south of the Danube. Its western border is the Timok River and to the east it borders the Black Sea, the plain has an area of 31,523 square kilometres. It is about 500 kilometres long and 20 to 120 kilometres wide, the relief of the Danubian Plain is hilly, featuring numerous plateaux and river valleys. The climate is temperate continental with a weak Black Sea influence in the east. Precipitation is on average 450–650 mm a year, important rivers include the Danube, the Iskar, the Yantra, the Osam, the Vit, the Rusenski Lom, the Ogosta and the Lom. Among the major cities of the region are Varna, Rousse, Pleven, Dobrich, Shumen, Veliko Tarnovo, Vratsa, Vidin, Montana, Silistra, Targovishte, Razgrad, Lom and Svishtov. In the Danubian Plain there is a variety of minerals, such as, Lignite Fireproof clay Oil
4.
Merlot
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Merlot is a dark blue-colored wine grape variety, that is used as both a blending grape and for varietal wines. The name Merlot is thought to be a diminutive of merle and its softness and fleshiness, combined with its earlier ripening, makes Merlot a popular grape for blending with the sterner, later-ripening Cabernet Sauvignon, which tends to be higher in tannin. Merlot is also one of the most popular red wine varietals in many markets and this flexibility has helped to make it one of the worlds most planted grape varieties. As of 2004, Merlot was estimated to be the third most grown variety at 260,000 hectares globally and this puts Merlot just behind Cabernet Sauvignons 262,000 hectares. While Merlot is made across the globe, there tends to be two main styles, the earliest recorded mention of Merlot was in the notes of a local Bordeaux official who in 1784 labeled wine made from the grape in the Libournais region as one of the areas best. In 1824, the word Merlot itself appeared in an article on Médoc wine where it was described that the grape was named after the black bird who liked eating the ripe grapes on the vine. Other descriptions of the grape from the 19th century called the variety lou seme doù flube with the thought to have originated on one of the islands found along the Garonne river. By the 19th century it was being planted in the Médoc on the Left Bank of the Gironde. It was first recorded in Italy around Venice under the synonym Bordò in 1855, the grape was introduced to the Swiss, from Bordeaux, sometime in the 19th century and was recorded in the Swiss canton of Ticino between 1905 and 1910. In the 1990s, Merlot saw an upswing of popularity in the United States, the popularity of Merlot stemmed in part from the relative ease in pronouncing the name of the wine as well as its softer, fruity profile that made it more approachable to some wine drinkers. In the late 1990s, researchers at University of California, Davis showed that Merlot is an offspring of Cabernet Franc and is a half-sibling of Carménère, Malbec, as the connection to Merlot became known, the grape was formally registered under the name Magdeleine Noire des Charentes. Through its relationship with Magdeleine Noire des Charentes Merlot is related to the Southwest France wine grape Abouriou, grape breeders have used Merlot crossed with other grapes to create several new varieties including Carmine, Ederena, Evmolpia, Fertilia, Mamaia, Nigra, Prodest and Rebo. Over the years, Merlot has spawned a color mutation that is used commercially, Merlot grapes are identified by their loose bunches of large berries. The color has less of a blue/black hue than Cabernet Sauvignon grapes and with a thinner skin and it normally ripens up to two weeks earlier than Cabernet Sauvignon. Also compared to Cabernet, Merlot grapes tend to have a sugar content. Ampelographer J. M. Merlot thrives in soil, particularly ferrous clay. The vine tends to bud early which gives it some risk to cold frost, if bad weather occurs during flowering, the Merlot vine is prone to develop coulure. The vine can also be susceptible to mildew and to infection by leafhopper insect varieties
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Cabernet Sauvignon
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Cabernet Sauvignon is one of the worlds most widely recognized red wine grape varieties. It is grown in every major wine producing country among a diverse spectrum of climates from Canadas Okanagan Valley to Lebanons Beqaa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon became internationally recognized through its prominence in Bordeaux wines where it is blended with Merlot. For most of the 20th century, it was the worlds most widely planted red wine grape until it was surpassed by Merlot in the 1990s. Familiarity and ease of pronunciation have helped to sell Cabernet Sauvignon wines to consumers and its widespread popularity has also contributed to criticism of the grape as a colonizer that takes over wine regions at the expense of native grape varieties. The classic profile of Cabernet Sauvignon tends to be full-bodied wines with high tannins, in more moderate climates the blackcurrant notes are often seen with black cherry and black olive notes while in very hot climates the currant flavors can veer towards the over-ripe and jammy side. In parts of Australia, particularly the Coonawarra wine region of South Australia, for many years, the origin of Cabernet Sauvignon was not clearly understood and many myths and conjectures surrounded it. The word Sauvignon is believed to be derived from the French sauvage meaning wild, until recently the grape was rumored to have ancient origins, perhaps even being the Biturica grape used to make ancient Roman wine and referenced by Pliny the Elder. This belief was widely held in the 18th century, when the grape was known as Petite Vidure or Bidure. There was also belief that Vidure was a reference to the wood of the vine. Another theory was that the grapevine originated in the Rioja region of Spain, the first estates known to have actively grown the variety were Château Mouton and Château dArmailhac in Pauillac. The grapes true origins were discovered in 1996 with the use of DNA typing at the UC Davis Department of Viticulture and Enology, by a team led by Dr. Carole Meredith. The DNA evidence determined that Cabernet Sauvignon was the offspring of Cabernet franc, in 2016 scientists at the UC Davis announced they had sequenced a draft of the whole genome of the Cabernet Sauvignon grape, the first genome of a commercial wine-producing grape to be sequenced. While not as prolific in mutating as Pinot noir, nor as widely used in production of offspring, in 1961, a cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache produced the French wine grape Marselan. Cygne blanc is a seedling of Cabernet Sauvignon that was discovered in 1989 growing in a garden in Swan Valley. Cabernet blanc is a crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon and a hybrid grape variety that was discovered in Switzerland in the late 20th century. In 1977 a vine producing bronze grapes was found in the vineyards of Cleggett Wines in Australia and they propagated this mutant, registered it under the name of Malian, and sold pale red wines under that name. In 1991 one of the Bronze Cabernet vines started producing white grapes, Cleggett registered this White Cabernet under the name of Shalistin
6.
Balkan Mountains
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The Balkan mountain range is a mountain range in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The Balkan range runs 560 km from the Vrashka Chuka Peak on the border between Bulgaria and Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea, the highest peaks of the Balkan Mountains are in central Bulgaria. The highest peak is Botev at 2,376 m, which makes the range the third highest in the country, after Rila. The mountains are the source of the name of the Balkan Peninsula, the mountain range forms the watershed between the Black Sea and Aegean Sea catchment areas, with the exception of an area in west, where it is crossed by the spectacular Iskar Gorge. The karst relief determines the number of caves, including Magura, featuring the most important and extended European post-Palaeolithic cave painting, Ledenika, Saeva dupka, Bacho Kiro. The most notable formation are the Belogradchik Rocks in the west. There are several important protected areas, Central Balkan National Park, Vrachanski Balkan Nature Park, Bulgarka Nature Park and Sinite Kamani Nature Park, the Balkan Mountains are remarkable for their flora and fauna. Edelweiss grows there in the region of Kozyata stena, some of the most striking landscapes are included in the Central Balkan National Park with steep cliffs, the highest waterfalls in the Balkan Peninsula and lush vegetation. There are a number of important nature reserves such as Chuprene, Kozyata stena, most of Europes large mammals inhabit the area including the brown bear, wolf, boar, chamois and deer. The Balkan Mountains played a role in the history of Bulgaria since its foundation in 681 AD. It is believed the name was brought to the region in the 7th century by Bulgars who applied it to the area, in Bulgarian, the word balkan means mountain. It may have derived from the Persian bālkāneh or bālākhāna, meaning high, above, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. In Turkish balkan means a chain of wooded mountains In the Antiquity and the Middle Ages the mountains were known by their Thracian name, scholars consider that Haemus is believed that the name is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, mountain ridge. The name of the place where the range meets the Black Sea, other names used to refer to the mountains in different time periods include Aemon, Haemimons, Hem, Emus, the Slavonic Matorni gori and the Turkish Kodzhabalkan. Geologically, the Balkan Mountains are a part of the Alp-Himalayan chain that stretches across most of Europe. It can be divided into two parts, the main Balkan Chain and the Pre-Balkans to the north, which intrude slightly into the Danubian Plain, the range consists of around 30 portions called mountains. The Eastern Balkan Mountains from the Vratnik Pass to Cape Emine with a length of 160 kilometres, the eastern Balkan Mountains forms the lowest part of the range. The Balkan Mountains form a divide between the rivers flowing to the Danube in the north and those flowing to the Aegean Sea in the south
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Suhindol Point
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Named after the town of Suhindol in northern Bulgaria. Antarctica, Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands, ISBN 978-954-92032-6-4 SCAR Composite Antarctic Gazetteer This article includes information from the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria which is used with permission
8.
Smith Island (South Shetland Islands)
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Smith Island is 20 miles long and 5 miles wide, lying 45 miles west of Deception Island in the South Shetland Islands of the British Antarctic Territory. The discovery of the South Shetland Islands was first reported in 1819 by Capt. William Smith, the island hosts no research stations or camps, and is seldom visited by scientists or mountaineers. Its interior is occupied by Imeon Range rising to 2,105 m. Composite Antarctic Gazetteer Imeon Range List of Antarctic islands south of 60° S SCAR South Shetland Islands Territorial claims in Antarctica Smith Island
