Thracian tomb in Kazanlak
Thracian tomb in Kazanlak is one of the oldest and most interesting tombs found in Bulgaria. This part of the country is called, Valley of the Kings. Itself Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak is a masonry arch tomb, which is part of a large necropolis, situated near the ancient Thracian city, Seuthopolis.
The Thracian tomb in Kazanlak is one of the 100 national tourist sites and in 1979 is included in the UNESCO list of World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The Thracian tomb in Kazanlak is for the Thracian ruler Roygos. It was discovered accidentally on April 19th, 1944 by soldiers in the trench mound in the northeast of Kazanlak.
The mound had nothing that suggested beneath it lies this vast archaeological treasure as it had a kind of natural outcome of a simple small hill. The height of the mound over the tomb of Kazanlak reaches 7 meters and the diameter at its base was 40 meters. While the soldiers dug they stumbled upon a stone wall. The body of the Kazanlak tomb consists of a burial chamber with a campanulate-dome and a corridor to it.
The entire necropolis is a stone shirt, from which the entrance of dromos released two parallel walls. They form a rectangular hall with a length of 2.60 meters and width of 1.84 m. The tomb was built of bricks in two forms - in dromos they are rectangular in a domed room which is trapezoidal. Trapezoidal bricks were used for construction of facilities with a circular plan.
Relatively small set of objects, jewelry, and human and animal skeletons were found during archaeological work in the Kazanlak tomb. In the enclosure there are remains of a man and woman in the hallway and in front of the camera bones of a horse. In the mound were discovered ceramics and ritual vessels, as well as parts of gold ornaments. It is believed that the Kazanlak tomb was plundered in antiquity. In this tomb were also found traces of altars, served for making sacrifices.
Thracian tomb in Kazanlak is considered a masterpiece of the Thracian architecture. Its importance is enormous because it is Bulgaria's only completely preserved monument from the period between 3rd – 4th century. Murals on the walls are also unique. Part of the well has remaining paintings in the corridor and domed room. Another part, which occupies about 40 square meters are on the walls of the burial chamber and dromos.
The artist had worked with four main colors: black, red, yellow and white and used two techniques: in wet fresco and decorative figure painting and tempera color on the floors and walls. For the decoration a encaustic technique has been used in which the plaster yielded shiny, almost mirror shine. Most of the paintings transform the military life, ordinary household scenes and moments from the afterlife.
