The Belogradchik Rocks

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The Belogradchik Rocks are a group of bizarre sandstone and limestone rock formations, reaching up to 200 m in height. They form a strip, which is 30 km long and up to 3 km wide, and are located north of the western slopes of Stara Planina, near the town of Belogradchik in Bulgaria. The formations are a product of erosion.



Many of the rocks are related with interest legends.


The central group of rocks is situated to the South of Belogradchik. Here are the most interesting and impressive formations - Adam and Eve, The Schoolgirl, The Bear, The Shepherd boy, The Dervish, The First slabstone, The Camel, The Mushrooms, The Cuckoo, The Red wall, The Madonna, The Horseman, The Monks, The Mental stone, Rebel Velko, The Pine stone and many others. They are declared as a natural landmarks.


The second group is to the West of the town. The rocks are of Alpine type, they surround big precipices. The most famous rocks are Zbegovete, Erqupriya, Boritch.


The third group is some 4 km away to the East of the town, which includes the rocks around The Latin Kale and The Lipenik cave.


The fourth group is extended between the villages of Borovitsa and Falkovets. There are the well-known Pine stone (declared as a natural landmark), The Red stone, The Bee stone, Torlak, The Maid's rock.


The last group is situated between the villages of Gyurgitch and Belotintsi.


Sand-mergel rocks have been stratified in this region about 200 million years ago (in the end of the Paleozoic period). Later they have been overflowed by a sea, on the bottom of which sand, gravel and clay, dragged up by the rivers, have been piled. In the course of time these materials have been fitted together by silicon or sand-clay solder. Conglomerates and sand-stones, known as colored sand-stone - boundsandstein, have been formed in this way. Under the influence of the iron oxide they have gotten a red shade.


Gray and cream-white limestone have been piled up the sand-stones during the Jurassic period. They formed the foreheads of the present Belogradchik's Venets and Vedernik. During the folding of The Balkan Mountains this region turned to dry land. Rifts have appeared in its highest part, under the destroyed function of water, winds and the temperature variations. This action have reached the sand-stones. Because of their different hardness they have been destroyed unequally. So the fantastic outlines of the Belogradchik rocks have been created during million years.


Over 100 caves - rich in beautiful formations, precipices and interesting fauna have been formed in the sand-stone and the limestone . The most famous - The Magura cave (its length is over 2500 m) is well laid out - lighting, safeguard fittings. With the surrounded area it is declared as a natural landmark.