Rudozem is a town in southern Bulgaria

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...

, near the Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 border, located in the Rhodope Mountains

Rhodope Mountains

The Rhodopes are a mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. Its highest peak, Golyam Perelik , is the seventh highest Bulgarian mountain...

, where the Elhovo and Chepino rivers flow into the Arda, and is part of Smolyan Province

Smolyan Province

-Religion:The Smolyan province along with the Kardzhali Province is a province where the predominant religion is not Orthodox Christianity but Islam. However, unlike Kardzhali where the majority of the population is Turkish, the Muslim population of the Smolyan province is made up almost entirely...

. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Rudozem Municipality. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 3,583 inhabitants.

The name Rudozem is a compound word made up of Bulgarian

Bulgarian language

Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...

 ruda (руда) meaning "ore"; and the root zem (зем) meaning "land". It refers to the wealth of the area in mineral resources. Its former name is Palas. She was a township of the Ottoman İskeçe

Xanthi

Xanthi ; is a city in Thrace, northeastern Greece. It is the capital of the Xanthi peripheral unit of the periphery of East Macedonia and Thrace.-History:...

 sanjak

Sanjak

Sanjaks were administrative divisions of the Ottoman Empire. Sanjak, and the variant spellings sandjak, sanjaq, and sinjaq, are English transliterations of the Turkish word sancak, meaning district, banner, or flag...

 in Edirne

Edirne

Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...

 vilayet between 1867 and 1912.

Rudozem Heights

Rudozem Heights

Rudozem Heights are the heights rising to 1500 m at the base and in the interior of German Peninsula on Fallières Coast in Graham Land, Antarctica, extending 18.5 km in northeast-southwest direction and 13.7 km in east-west direction...

 on Fallières Coast

Fallieres Coast

Fallières Coast is that portion of the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula between the head of Bourgeois Fjord and Cape Jeremy and lies on Marguerite Bay and the Wordie Ice Shelf. On the south it is joined by Rymill Coast, and in the north by Loubet Coast. Fallières Coast was first explored in...

 in Antarctica is named after the town.