Is this hard to believe?

Indeed, the archeologists have found evidences for that. For starters, just check out some of the names given to the establishment I am going to talk about today, through the ages:

Kendrisos/Kendros; Evmolpias/Eumolpia; Philipoppolis; Pulpudeva; Trimontium; Puldin/Ploudin/Pulden/Populdin; Filibe

If you have heard before any of those names, you probably already realized that today I am going to share with you moments and thoughts about Plovdiv, the second biggest city in Bulgaria. Established by the Thracians, 4000 BC, ruled also by the Romans and the Ottoman Empire before it takes its current name. Today, I want to focus on its so called "Ancient Town" and one of the most beautiful hills the city was built around, "Nebet Tepe".

My sentiments about Plovdiv are very mixed. I have few friends who live and work there, I even was part of a team who placed a photographic exhibition in the big central square there, dedicated to the environmental sustainability. Several amazing photographs have been featured during that presentation ;) However, I have one very strong negative sentiment of my mother being threated there unsuccessfully, for cancer in one of the final stages. Of course, plenty of other stories too, some good, some bad... Few years ago, there was a clever play with the letters of the city title:

pLOVEdiv

Indeed, plenty of love around as it is a really beautiful city, built upon the banks or one of the biggest Bulgarian rivers, Maritsa. In the past it has been used for transportation but nowadays nobody does that as along the river is the biggest highway "Tracia" and also, the Bulgarian part of the famous railway "Orient Express". So, plenty of faster ways to travel. But why nobody uses it for tourism, it is a miracle to me. As I know there are plenty of great landscapes and the wildlife is also rich around. Also, there is plenty of water for small to medium boats. Perhaps that's a future business area for development and exploring. Anyway, let's get back to old Plovdiv. The photos I am going to share with you today I took in the early spring. It was a lovely sunny but rather cold day allowing for long and calm walk without running into crowds of tourists.

On this photo above you can see why the Romans called it "Trimontium" or "Three Hills".

I love "delving" into the old streets of the Ancient Town. There are so many things to see and experience. Museums, churches, amazing houses. Artisan shops. I highly recommend if you go there try some of the cosmetics products made in Bulgaria with authentic rose oil from Damascene roses.

This is a view from one the small shops, located in front of the Ethnographical museum:

More scenery landscapes or I should probably say cityscapes from Nebet Tepe, where people go also to take a break and enjoy the city from the bird eye.

Here you could also see Maritsa river and one of the bridges connecting its banks:

Getting on top of the hill was a pleasant part of our photo-walk and we decided to spend more time at Nebet Tepe, enjoying and great weather. Only one thing ruined our pleasant time there and it was the red swastika spray-painted on a monument there. I don't know why people do that and vandalize beautiful places. It has always stunned me how people could be much more destructive than creative. I know that one day it won't be Mother Nature who will wipe us out of the planet, it will be us instead, self-destructing Humanity. Of course, I hope I am wrong about that and we become better and more aware of our environment.

After we made enough photos to fill our visual memories, we went back to rambling the ancient town narrow streets, covered with stones with imprinted millions of humans steps on them...

Here you could see a beautiful example of Bulgarian house architecture from these times where the second floor gets a bit above the street thus utilizing for bigger surface and better views, I also suppose these parts of the houses had defensive functions in the past as well.

Check out the height of the stone walls, a result of countless battles in the past:

All the front yards of the houses carry the signs of time and their creators, passed centuries ago.

Something that the photos cannot pass are the unique smells of every place and yard, and street. They were quite distinguishing. I am sure that if I go there regularly at a certain point I am going to be able to tell where I am even with my eyes closed.

I will definitely visit this part of the city again, as I want to focus my search into the tiny details of the district. As you could see above, there are plenty and some of them are very well hidden from the "fast eye".

Also in the spring, there were plenty of trees blooming, like this stunning magnolia tree we spent quite some time photographing. Amazing contrast between it and the old typical Bulgarian architecture, isn't it?

And last but not least, here is a peek from the street towards one of the most beautiful houses, also converted into a museum, that is a must-visit if you find yourself in beautiful Plovdiv; I think I visited this museum at least three times and I wouldn't mind going there again, so this clearly speaks for the beauty and the energy of this place:

Plovdiv Names Through The Ages source with more info about the names:

https://www.inyourpocket.com/plovdiv/Names-Through-The-Ages_72723f

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Copyright: Damian Hadjiyvanov, Light Captured
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