Geography of Bulgaria

The Republic of Bulgaria is situated in Southeastern Europe, on the eastern half of the Balkan Peninsula and is bordered to the north, mainly along the Danube, Romania to the west by Serbia and Macedonia, to the south by Greece and Turkey, and on the east by the Black Sea.

Culturally, Bulgaria was always on the borderline between European and Oriental influences.

3.1 limits
3.2 Administrative divisions
3.3 Largest cities

Physical Geography

Nature regions

The country is through the Balkan Mountains ( ' Stara plani'na, Bulg Стара Планина = Old Mountains) ( nearly 2,400 meters high ) divided to the northern Danube plain in the south to Oberthrakische lowlands. In the southeast the beach damage and Sakar Mountain and the Rhodope Mountains rise to the south. Pirin and Rila Mountains are the highest mountains of the mainland in the southwest. In the latter, the Rila Monastery is located ( Bulg Рилски Манастир ). To the west of the country is also home to the Sofia basin. North of the Rila is the Vitosha Mountains and on the west Osogowo and Belasiza form the border with Macedonia and Greece. The geographic center of the country lies in the area of Usana in the Balkan Mountains. The coastline length is 354 km.

The country is divided from north to south into four main landscape zones.

North Bulgarian plate south of the Danube
Balkan mountains (up to 2300 meters high)
Means Bulgarian pool
Thracian mountain range in the south (up to 3000 meters high)

Skip Bulgaria is divided as follows in height zones:

Orography

Of the total area of Bulgaria ( 110,910 km ²) are 110,550 km ² land area, 360 km ² to be taken from the sea ( Black Sea). The deepest point is the coastline of the Black Sea at zero meters. The Musala in the Rila Mountains is at a height of 2925 meters, the highest elevation of the country and the Balkan Peninsula dar. The highest mountain in Pirin mountain is the Vihren and the highest point of the Balkan Mountains forms of Botev.

Waters

The longest river in Bulgaria is the Danube, which forms on almost 500 kilometers, the northern border to Romania. The longest river is the springing in the country 368 km long Iskar. Other major rivers are the Maritsa, Arda, Mesta and Struma River and its tributaries, which originate in the Bulgarian mountains, form the most important rivers in Bulgaria.

In the land of three river basins can be distinguished, which open to the north into the Danube in the east to the Black Sea and in the south in the Aegean Sea. The largest rivers that flow to the north, are Iskar, Osam, Yantra, Timok. They originate in the Balkan Mountains or the Iskar, in the Rila Mountains. Eastwards flow rather smaller rivers like Prowadijska, Kamtschija, Ropotamo, Veleka or Resowo. The south, the rivers flow Mesta, Struma, Mariza and Tundscha.

The most important lakes are the lakes around Burgas: the Atanasov Lake, Burgas Lake, Pomorie Lake, the Mandra Lake, and the Srebarna Lake and the Devnya Lake. The largest lake in Bulgaria 's Burgas Lake 27 km ². Other famous lakes are the seven lakes in the western part of the Rila Mountains.

Islands

For Bulgaria are mainly smaller islands, located in the Danube and Black Sea. The Danube has a total of 132 islands in the section between Romania and Bulgaria. Of these, 81 islands belong to Bulgaria and Romania on 51 islands. The three largest Bulgarian Danube islands are Belene, Kozloduy ( Козлодуй ) and Wardim ( Вардим ). The biggest Black Sea island of Sveti Ivan is, more are Sveti Kirik i Julita, Sweta Anastasia and Snake Island.

Nature Reserves and Parks

National Parks

The three National Parks in Bulgaria together have a surface of 1920 square kilometers, that is, 1.73 percent of the country.

The Central Balkan National Park ( Bulg Национален парк Централен Балкан, 71 670 hectares) extends over the middle and upper portions of the in- Central Bulgaria part of the Balkan Mountains. Here's more than half of the entire Bulgarian plant species to be found. The highest of the park belonging peak is Botev peak with 2376 meters.
Rila National Park ( Bulg Национален парк Рила, 81,000 hectares)
Pirin National Park ( Bulg Национален парк Пирин, 40,000 hectares)

Nature parks

Bulgaria has ten nature parks that make up total an area of 2891 square kilometers and thus 2.6 percent of the country.

The park Bulgarka ( Българка, 21,772 hectares) extends over the northern slopes of the central Balkan Mountains, and has existed since the 9th September 2002. The park, which is fenced to 80 percent ( of which 65 % Book ), include the Museum Shipka Busludja and the open air museum Etara. In the animal world, among others, golden jackal, deer, deer, badger, pine marten, wolf, brown bear, golden eagle and white-backed woodpecker are represented.
Shumen Plateau ( 3930 hectares)
Rila Monastery ( 27,371 hectares)
Rusenski Lom ( 49 629 hectares)
The Nature Park Persina ( 21 762 hectares) extends along the Danube and serves primarily to protect the numerous islands.
Sinite Kamani ( 7095 hectares)
The " Nature Park beach damage " includes almost the entire beach Saddle Mountains. With an area of 1161.36 square kilometers, the Natural Park takes a good one percent of the territory of the country and is the largest protected area in Bulgaria. The park is divided into five reserves Silkosija ( Силкосия ) Witanowo ( Витаново ) Sredoka ( Средока ) Tisowica ( Тисовица ) and Usunbodschak ( Узунбоджак ) (also called Lopushna ( Лопушна ) ) divided and added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Vitosha ( 30,130 hectares)
Wratschanski Balkans ( 30,130 hectares)
Slatni pjassazi ( 1321 hectares)

Reserves

In Bulgaria, a total of 55 reserves are counted. 16 of which 1977 were under the UNESCO program "Man and Biosphere" ( Man and Biosphere - MAB) proclaimed to protect typical landscapes to biosphere reserves.

Climate

The Bulgarian climate is despite the very southern location in the winter partly icy cold which is due to the Siberian continental high, which provide with its air flow for a few days permafrost on land in Bulgaria kann.Trotzdem may vary according to weather conditions reach air masses from the Mediterranean Bulgaria and thus ensuring a rapid temperature rise and let 20 degrees in February to appear in the realm of possibility. Summers are generally hot and quite dry and not end until the middle of September with the first few days under 20 degrees at a time. The autumn is established as a typical Indian summer and can be detached from the end of November from sudden frosts which are then quickly highlight the short and cold winter. On the Black Sea coast, there are usually only a handful of days with permafrost while in the Danube plain, the cold air can collect good and can cater to a variety permafrost days. The same effect the warm air masses, which provide in the Danube plain for temperatures up to 40 degrees and make it the hottest and most continental region of Bulgaria in the summer.

Political Geography

Confines

The Bulgarian state area covers about 110,910 km ² with a population density of 70 inhabitants per km ².

The total length of the land border of Bulgaria is 1808 km. Attributable to the border with Romania 608 km, of which 470 km are defined by the River Danube, 318 km along the border with Serbia, 148 km along the border with Macedonia, 494 km and on the border with Greece and 240 km to the border with Turkey. In the east the coastline on the Black Sea is 354 km.

Administrative divisions

The Republic of Bulgaria is a central government, which in 28 districts ( Bulg област / Oblast ) in the 264 municipalities ( Bulg общини / Obstina ) is divided. The largest is the Oblast Burgas Oblast, the largest Obstina forms the Obstina Sofia.

Main article: Districts in Bulgaria

Largest cities

Due to different counting methods resulting at the population figures for individual cities diffrierende results.

The 10 largest municipalities (as of 14 December 2006):

The 10 largest cities (as of 14 December 2006):