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Varna
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Varna is Bulgaria's third largest city. It was an inhabited place even before
the Greeks established the colony of Odessos there about 580 B.C. Later, under
the Romans and their successors, the Slavs, Varna became a major port trading
with Constantinople, Venice and Dubrovnik. The name of the town (Odessos - a
settlement on water) is not Greek but of an earlier linguistic origin, which
suggests the presence of an older village on the same territory.
Successor to ancient civilisations, survivor of the transformations of
time, the present-day city of Varna is one of the most attractive Bulgarian
towns, the Pearl of the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast - as it is called for good
reasons.The city of Varna – population 325,137, is situated on the Bay of Varna,
470 km east of Sofia. Varna is the biggest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea
coast. Varna’s length is over 11 km, its width, including the new
residential district in nearly 9km. The city stand in tiers and follows the
curves of the Bay of Varna.
Nowadays it is the main port for both naval and commercial
shipping and, as it is near the coastal resorts of Golden Sands, St. Constantine
(Drouzhba) and Albena, it has a cosmopolitan atmosphere. Sailors on shore-leave
in unfamiliar ceremonial uniforms, mingle with foreign tourists and locals as
they promenade along shady boulevards, lined by dignified 19th and early 20th
century buildings.
The city is surrounded by numerous gardens, vineyards and
deciduous groves. Almost the whole territory is occupied with private country
houses and small farms that belong to them. About 20 kilometres west of
Varna is the so-called Stone Forest, a curious collection of stone columns up to
7 metres high. The first impression is of a ruined temple but scientists have
discovered that it is a geological formation of stalagmites some fifty million
years old.
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