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Turtle-like reliefs, cut in the rocks by an ancient culture. Largest is 7x5 m.
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The fortress was built in the 10th century to protect an important trade route. It frequently changed hands but the Byzantines held it most of the time. The trail to the fortress is quite difficult and takes about 1 hr but the views from this fortress are breathtaking.
The Thracian sanctuary is one of the most imposing megalithic monuments discovered on the territory of Bulgaria. The sanctuary is a massive rock structure and its top is a truncated pyramid. The complex comprises two sarcophagi, a rectangular bed for the main altar, and a 3-m-deep well. It dates back to the end of the 5th and the beginning of the 4th centuries BC.
Eagle Rock Sanctuary
A historic Thracian site near Ardino and consists of niches cut into a large rock standing above the forest. The site was obviously of religious significance. This Thracian phenomenon, the "trapezoid alcoves" are found all over the Rhodopes dug high in difficult to reach rocks. There is no definite answer as to how or why the Thracian people made them. The Orlovi skali (Eagles' Rocks) site carries about 100 insections. From Ardino an asphalted road takes you to a small parking at the start of a trail. It takes about 15 min of moderate intensity walk to get there.
Дяволският мост
Nice place with old stone bridge over a river. The view is great! Legend says that the bridge was built by the Romans to connect the Aegean Sea and the Thrace region of Bulgaria. The bridge is the largest and best-known of its kind in the Rhodope Mountains,
Utroba Cave
This Thracian megalith, the Womb Cave (Cult complex “Utroba cave” Тракийско светилище Пещера Утроба) is located near village of Ilinica. The temple is shaped like the opening to a vagina. It leads into a 22-m deep cave. At the end of the cave, a carved altar (1.3 m in height) symbolises the womb itself. At midday as the sun approaches its highest point, the sun light seeps into the cave through a special opening in the ceiling and projects a perfectly recognisable representation of a phallus onto the floor. As the sun progresses further, and the light slants across the interior of the cave, the phallus grows longer, reaching out to the womb altar. Only during some months of the year, when the sun is lowest on the horizon, the phallus becomes long enough to reach the altar and symbolically fecundate the womb. A well marked tourist route exists through Enchec village and around 300 m after mountain cottage “Borovica”. The way to the cave includes around an hour of walking up. The path is steep but with three big alcoves and a shelter right under the cleft of the cliff. Local people know the place as Dangardak kaya (The echoing stone). Today childless couples visit the Womb cave to gain a long-awaited child.
An archaeological site with monumental megalithic structures, dating back from the Bronze Age and is considered to be the largest megalithic archaeological site in all of Bulgaria.