Читать книгу Walking in Bulgaria's National Parks. Pirin, Rila and Central Balkans National Parks онлайн

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There are nine nature reserves within the boundaries of the national park, accounting for about 30 per cent of its total area. These are the Boatin, Tsarichina, Kozya Stena, Steneto, Stara Reka, Dzhendema, Severen Dzhendem, Peeshtite Skali and Sokolna reserves. In 2003 the Central Balkan national park became the fourth national park in Europe to be awarded the prestigious title PAN park, recognising it as the best of Europe’s wilderness. A PAN park offers real wilderness with outstanding nature and high-quality tourism facilities, well balanced with wilderness protection and sustainable local development. See www.panparks.org.

Geology

The name Stara Planina – ‘old mountains’ – is something of a misnomer, as this is in fact the youngest mountain range in the country, one of the so-called ‘new fold-mountains’ that were uplifted at the same time as the Alps and Himalayas as a result of tectonic pressures from the south. As a whole, the Central Balkan national park has a complex geological history and structure, and this helps to give the region its charm, and an ever-changing succession of landscapes. In places the main ridge is narrow, bristling with rugged peaks, its flanks lined with cliffs and pierced by deeply cut valleys. Elsewhere it is broad and mellow, with gently domed summits separated by shallow grassy saddles, the slopes swathed by pastures and ancient forests