BULGARIA
(Republic of Bulgaria)

CAPITAL: Sofia

Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, the Bulgarian Republic of Bulgriya, the country occupying east part of the Balkan Peninsula in southeast Europe. Bulgaria is one of the oldest states on the European continent founded in the 7th century. It is crossed by historically important routes from Northern and Eastern Europe to the Mediterranean Basin and from Western and Central Europe to the Middle East. Even before creation of the Bulgarian state of the empire of ancient Rome, Greece and Byzantium were strong presence, and people and goods traveled often on the ground.

In rather small compass the Bulgarian landscape shows an amazing topographical variety. Open open spaces of the lowland alternate with the broken highland which is cut out by deep river gorges and pools covering uplands, such as that in which there is Sofia. Three main structural and physiographic divisions work for the East-West, dividing the country into traditional regions of Northern Bulgaria, including the Danube plain and Balkan Mountains; Southern Bulgaria, including Rila-Rhodope massif; and transitional area between them.

The most part of Bulgaria has temperate continental climate which is softened with the Mediterranean influences in the south. Average annual temperature is 51 °F (10,5 °C), but it hides broad dispersion; temperatures up to -37 °F (-38 °C) and higher than 113 °F (45 °C) were registered. The average annual amount of precipitation fluctuates from 18 inches (450 mm) in the northeast to more than 47 inches (1,190 mm) in the highest mountains. Lowlands receive snowfall from the middle of October to the middle of May, with average annual on average 25-30 days of snow cover. From May to August occur a hail.

Ethnically the population is quite uniform, and Bulgarians make more than four fifth from total number. Slavic tribes which lodged in east part of the Balkan Peninsula in the 6th century substantially assimilated local Thracian culture which took roots in the 4th century AD. Also I created the main ethnic group. Bulgars who created the first Bulgarian state in 681 created one more component. Bulgars and Slavs united with gradual destruction of the fragmented Slavic tribes in uniform the people which became known as Bulgarians.

Tourism in Bulgaria considerably grew from 2000th years. In 2005 in Bulgaria there arrived about 750 000 annual foreign tourists. Besides popular Black Sea resorts tourists visit historic centers, such as Sofia, Plovdiv and Rila Monastery and also the centers of winter sports, such as Borovets in mountains Rhodope. Pirin National Park which occupies 67 700 acres (27 400 hectares) in Mountains Pirin was appointed an object of the World heritage of UNESCO in 1983; an object of the World heritage was expanded in 2010 for a covering of additional 25 000 acres (10 000 hectares).