Why are we going here?

Can't say Bulgaria was on our bucket list but an advert in 'World Archaeology' offering a trip to see 'The gold of Thrace and Rome' caught our interest. We had no idea where Thrace was and on investigating it turned out to be Bulgaria. The Thracians were a collection of tribes sharing an ethnic culture ,occupying lands from the Black Sea coast to Macedonia and much of northern Greece, from the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Little is known about them but they built large, decorated stone tombs and produced beautiful gold objects - some of which was in the recent exhibition we went to at the British museum.
The area has been invaded by pretty much everyone from Philip and Alexander of Macedon, Romans, Visigoths, Huns, Slavs, Bulgars, Ottomans and Russians.
This is an organised archaeology trip concentrating on the Thrace and Roman remains with a bit of old frescoes in orthodox monasteries. We hope to learn a lot as we will be led by a Bulgarian archaeologist from Sofia University.Read more