Ludogorie
Encyclopedia
The Ludogorie or Deliorman (Делиорман, , all meaning "region of wild forests") is a region in northeastern Bulgaria
stretching over the plateau of the same name. Major cities in the region are Razgrad
, Novi Pazar
, Pliska
and Isperih
. Part of the Danubian Plain
, the region is hilly in the east, reaching up to 485.7 metres (1,593.5 ft) in height near the village of Samuil
, but merges with the plains of Dobruja
and the Danube
to the north, with the lowest point near Yuper (39.14 m (128.4 ft)). The region is bordered to the west by the Provadiya River
and the Beli Lom
; to the east it transitions into the Dobruja
plateau.
The plateau was formed of Karst
limestone
from the Lower Cretaceous covered by loess
material. Among the region's geological resources are kaolinite
, fireclay and mica
. The climate is temperate continental
, with up to 650 millimetres (25.6 in) of precipitation
yearly. Although the Ludogorie is poor in overground water resources, with only a few low rivers such as the Krapinets and the Kulak, it is rich in underground waters.
In ancient times, the Ludogorie was inhabited by the Thracian
tribes of the Getae
who left behind local architectural landmarks such as the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari
, a richly-decorated 3rd-century BC tomb that is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site
. Until the end of the 18th century, the Ludogorie was largely dominated by forests that merged with the ones of the Balkan Mountains
(Stara Planina) to the south, giving the name of the region both in Bulgarian and Turkish, literally translated as "region of wild forests" in English
. In recent times, the forests have been nearly completely replaced by arable land
and only the woods in the Voden Reserve remind of the former situation.
Ludogorie is a relatively new name, a Slavic
calque
of the older Turkish name Deliorman; it was officially introduced in 1950. In 1942, the name had been changed to Polesie, a Slavic toponym meaning "place by the woods", but this name never entered common use. The Turkish name is etymologically and semantically akin to the name of Teleorman County
in southern Romania
.
The Ludogorie mostly belongs to Razgrad Province
, with a western part in Ruse Province
, and has a mixed population of Bulgarians
, Roma and Turks
. The Ludogorie has attained fame for its oil wrestlers
throughout the time, including Koca Yusuf and Hergeleci Ibrahim
.
Ludogorie Peak
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
, Antarctica is named after Ludogorie.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
stretching over the plateau of the same name. Major cities in the region are Razgrad
Razgrad
Razgrad is a city in northeastern Bulgaria, administrative and industrial centre of the homonymous Razgrad Province. As of February 2011, it has a population of 33,238 inhabitants.-History:...
, Novi Pazar
Novi Pazar, Bulgaria
-External links:*...
, Pliska
Pliska
Pliska is the name of both the first capital of Danubian Bulgaria and a small town which was renamed after the historical Pliska after its site was determined and excavations began....
and Isperih
Isperih
Isperih is a town in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Razgrad Province, situated in the central part of the Ludogorie region. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Isperih Municipality...
. Part of the Danubian Plain
Danubian Plain (Bulgaria)
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 . It is about long and wide.The relief of the Danubian Plain is...
, the region is hilly in the east, reaching up to 485.7 metres (1,593.5 ft) in height near the village of Samuil
Samuil (village)
Samuil is a village in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Razgrad Province, located in the geographic region of Ludogorie. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Samuil Municipality, which lies in the southeastern part of the Province...
, but merges with the plains of Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
and the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
to the north, with the lowest point near Yuper (39.14 m (128.4 ft)). The region is bordered to the west by the Provadiya River
Provadiya River
The Provadiya River is a river in northeastern Bulgaria. It is 119 km long and has a drainage basin of 2,132 km². The river takes its source from close to the village of Dobri Voynikovo in Shumen Province, flowing southeast and then making a sharp turn northeast to empty into Lake Devnya at Devnya...
and the Beli Lom
Rusenski Lom
The Rusenski Lom is a river in northeastern Bulgaria, the last major right tributary of the Danube. It is formed by the rivers Beli Lom and Cherni Lom, the former taking its source south of Razgrad and the latter southeast of Popovo....
; to the east it transitions into the Dobruja
Dobruja
Dobruja is a historical region shared by Bulgaria and Romania, located between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta, Romanian coast and the northernmost part of the Bulgarian coast...
plateau.
The plateau was formed of Karst
KARST
Kilometer-square Area Radio Synthesis Telescope is a Chinese telescope project to which FAST is a forerunner. KARST is a set of large spherical reflectors on karst landforms, which are bowlshaped limestone sinkholes named after the Kras region in Slovenia and Northern Italy. It will consist of...
limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
from the Lower Cretaceous covered by loess
Loess
Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...
material. Among the region's geological resources are kaolinite
Kaolinite
Kaolinite is a clay mineral, part of the group of industrial minerals, with the chemical composition Al2Si2O54. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral sheet of alumina octahedra...
, fireclay and mica
Mica
The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic, with a tendency towards pseudohexagonal crystals, and are similar in chemical composition...
. The climate is temperate continental
Continental climate
Continental climate is a climate characterized by important annual variation in temperature due to the lack of significant bodies of water nearby...
, with up to 650 millimetres (25.6 in) of precipitation
Precipitation (meteorology)
In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation In meteorology, precipitation (also known as one of the classes of hydrometeors, which are atmospheric water phenomena is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation...
yearly. Although the Ludogorie is poor in overground water resources, with only a few low rivers such as the Krapinets and the Kulak, it is rich in underground waters.
In ancient times, the Ludogorie was inhabited by the Thracian
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
tribes of the Getae
Getae
The Getae was the name given by the Greeks to several Thracian tribes that occupied the regions south of the Lower Danube, in what is today northern Bulgaria, and north of the Lower Danube, in Romania...
who left behind local architectural landmarks such as the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari
Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari
The Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari is situated 2.5 km southwest of the village of Sveshtari, Razgrad Province, which is located 42 km northeast of Razgrad, in the northeast of Bulgaria....
, a richly-decorated 3rd-century BC tomb that is a UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
. Until the end of the 18th century, the Ludogorie was largely dominated by forests that merged with the ones of the Balkan Mountains
Balkan Mountains
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 eastern Serbia eastward through central Bulgaria to Cape Emine on the Black Sea...
(Stara Planina) to the south, giving the name of the region both in Bulgarian and Turkish, literally translated as "region of wild forests" in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
. In recent times, the forests have been nearly completely replaced by arable land
Arable land
In geography and agriculture, arable land is land that can be used for growing crops. It includes all land under temporary crops , temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under market and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow...
and only the woods in the Voden Reserve remind of the former situation.
Ludogorie is a relatively new name, a Slavic
Slavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
of the older Turkish name Deliorman; it was officially introduced in 1950. In 1942, the name had been changed to Polesie, a Slavic toponym meaning "place by the woods", but this name never entered common use. The Turkish name is etymologically and semantically akin to the name of Teleorman County
Teleorman County
Teleorman is a county of Romania, in the historical region Muntenia, with its capital city at Alexandria.The name Teleorman is of Cumanic origin. It literally means crazy forest and, by extension, "thick and shadowy forest" in the Cuman language...
in southern Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
.
The Ludogorie mostly belongs to Razgrad Province
Razgrad Province
Razgrad Province , former name Razgrad okrug) is a province in Northeastern Bulgaria, geographically part of the Ludogorie region. It is named after its administrative and industrial centre - the town of Razgrad...
, with a western part in Ruse Province
Ruse Province
Ruse Province is a province in northern Bulgaria, named after its main city - Ruse, neighbouring Romania via the Danube. It is divided into 8 municipalities with a total population, as of December 2009, of 249,144 inhabitants....
, and has a mixed population of Bulgarians
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
, Roma and Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
. The Ludogorie has attained fame for its oil wrestlers
Yagli güres
Oil wrestling , also called grease wrestling, is the Turkish national sport. It is so called because the wrestlers douse themselves with olive oil. It is related to the Uzbeki kurash, Tuvan khuresh and Tatar köräş...
throughout the time, including Koca Yusuf and Hergeleci Ibrahim
Hergeleci Ibrahim
İbrahim Mahmut , nicknamed Hergeleci, was a Turkish pehlivan , who also performed as a professional wrestler. He was the Turkish Kırkpınar champion in 1914.- References :...
.
Ludogorie Peak
Ludogorie Peak
Ludogorie Peak is a peak rising to 350 m in Friesland Ridge, Tangra Mountains in eastern Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in Antarctica...
on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands
South Shetland Islands
The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...
, Antarctica is named after Ludogorie.
External links
- Ludogorie.org, website of the Native Ludogorie Cultural and Educational Association
- Razgrad and the Ludogorie, online news portal also offering online publications of the Ludogorski Vestnik newspaper