The Madara Rider

The Madara Rider is a large rock relief carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria. The relief depicts a majestic horseman 23 m above ground level in an almost vertical 100-metre-high cliff. The horseman is thrusting a spear into a lion lying at his horse's feet. A dog runs after the horseman.

This is situated 1.5 km east of the Madara village. This is a Medieval stone relief located at 23 meters of height on a vertical rock of the Madara plateau. This is the only monument in Europe declared by UNESCO a monument with world significance.

The relief represents a life- size horse rider, turned right. Using a spike, the rider stabs the lion, lying in his legs. A dog runs after the knight. The scene probably represents important historical events and gives an idea of the Medieval Bulgarian art. The composition is supposed to be Khan Tervel, because three groups of inscriptions - Chronics have been added. The first inscription dates back to Khan Tervel (8th century) and the two further down are Khan Kormish in the left and Khan Omurtag in the right.
The weather and erosions damaged the inscriptions, but from the leftover of the text, we can have an insight of the composition.

The inscriptions of Madara although was written in Greek, it symbolizes the power of the young Bulgarian nation established in the Balkan.

The monument is usually attributed to the ancient Bulgars, a nomadic tribe of warriors which settled in northeastern Bulgaria at the end of the 7th century and after merging with the local Slavs gave origin to the modern Bulgarians.

The monument is dated back to 710 and has been on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1979.