The Madara Horseman & Fortress
Located just 10km from Shumen, there is a range of spectacular cliffs which show signs of human occupancy going back to the third century B.C. The main attraction is of course the Madara Horseman, a carving of a horseman killing a lion with his greyhound in tow. However, if you believe the guide books, you may decide to give this sight a miss as it is described as being very badly eroded so that you can only see it as the sun sets. But we were passing on our way over to Veliko Turnovo, on the journey back from Varna and so decided to make the small detour to see it.
You drive through the sleepy town of Madara and follow the road out of the village until you reach a small collection of lean to shacks on the left serving snacks and selling tacky ornaments. Opposite the small car park is the entrance to the monument. There is a 4 lev charge per person and at first we wondered whether it was worth the fee just to see an eroded carving, but decided we may as well go for it as we were there. It also mentioned a further lev charge to take photographic equipment in with you but given that digital cameras these days are so small, and are easily concealed in a pocket, this seemed to just be ignored.
First you climb a couple of hundred steps through a park and come to the viewing platform for the carving at the top. It is not as big as I imagined it would be, but it has been carved into the cliff face almost a hundred metres up, an impressive fete in itself and you can still make out most of the detail.
It is not known exactly how old the carving is or why it was done. Some think it was carved in the 8th century by the Bulgars while others think it is much older and represents a ‘rider-god’ of the Thracian people.
Coming back down from the carving, you have the choice to go to see the fortress or the caves. We opted to explore the fortress first and set off along the track through the trees. After around 10 minutes we came to the bottom of the cliff and then had to climb hundreds of steep, rough-cut stone steps to reach the top of the cliff. In some places it was pretty precarious and ideally you need good, solid walking shoes on and not flip flops like we were wearing. It is a steady 20 minute climb at least to the top and you need to have a decent level of fitness. Once you emerge at the top there is a small arrow pointing along a track. The day we were there is was very misty and wet and the whole place had a very eerie feel to it. There were no other visitors and you got the feeling that you could take one wrong turn and be lost up here for days.
After a 10 minute walk we came upon the ruins of the fortress. There is basically the outer wall left and a few walls once belonging to a small church and couple of dwelling houses. The walls are around a metre thick and disappear in both directions right to the cliff edge. Be careful as we wandered along the wall and without any warning it just finished at the cliff edge with nothing but a 500 metre or so drop to the rocks and forest below. There was hardly
anything by way of safety netting and the only warning sign we spotted had fallen down the cliff on to a ledge several metres down. The views are supposed to be amazing but we were caught up in swirls of fog and so saw little. There are apparently two Thracian burial mounds somewhere on the cliff top and roman ruins scattered around but we saw nothing else and there were no signs by way of explanation. In fact the sign posting is so poor we ended up wandering along a different track on our way back and became rather disorientated until we traced our steps back to the fortress and set off back in another direction.
We then made the perilous decent down the stone steps and headed in the opposite direction along the path to the caves. There is what is termed the ‘large cave’, which is more a massive over-hang of rock with ruins of unknown origin at the base. There is then a smaller cave where flint, bones and pottery were found.
There is much more to see at Madara than just the bas-relief carving of the horseman.
