Kaliakra Cape

Kaliakra is a beautiful cape close to the Romanian border. Usually, it is the final stop of foreign tourists looking for pretty sights and interesting places to the north of Varna. Close to Kaliakra (12 km.) one can visit the town of Kavarna, which lies 60 km away from Varna.
   
The cape stretches 2km deep into the sea and consists of 60-70m-high limestone rocks, the inaccessibility of which has been the main reason for the construction of an ancient fortress named Tirisis there. The fortress was successively used by Tracians, Romans, Byzantines and Bulgarians. According to legends, the fortress was guarding the treasuries of Lyzimah, successor of Alexander the Great. Today there are quite many remains of those ancient settlements, which can be seen exhibited in a small museum. One can also read there a legend telling the story of several Bulgarian girls who chose to jump from the high cape into the sea but not to be captured and converted to Islam by the Turks.
The Kaliakra cape was declared a protected area in 1941. The protected area has since been expanded already three times and currently reaches some 50 ha. It is one of the few places where the rare species of seal-monks, found only in the northern part of the Bulgarian coast, were to be seen not long ago. A few decades ago, about 130 of these rare animals were counted in the area. Unfortunately, water pollution, illegal hunting and development of the tourism industry were the key reasons for their extinction in the early 80's. Back in 1980, the protected area was expanded again and today it reaches 687 ha.