Elhovo Gap is a 420 m high saddle extending 1 km in westsouthwest-eastnortheast direction from Gleaner Heights

Gleaner Heights

Gleaner Heights is a series of elevations extending southwest from Leslie Hill in the eastern part of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica...

 to Leslie Hill

Leslie Hill, Livingston Island

Leslie Hill is a hill lying northward of Bowles Ridge and south of Vidin Heights in the eastern part of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica...

, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, Antarctica which forms part of the overland route between Bowles Ridge

Bowles Ridge

Bowles Ridge is the central ridge of eastern Livingston Island. The ridge extends 6.5 km in the east-west direction and is 1.5 km wide. The summit of the ridge is Mount Bowles which rises to 822m and is located 9.77 km northwest of Great Needle Peak, 6.08 km north by west of...

 and Vidin Heights

Vidin Heights

Vidin Heights are predominantly ice-covered heights rising to 604 m on Varna Peninsula, eastern Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The feature is approximately 8 km long from the north end of Leslie Gap east-northeastwards to Inott Point and 9.6 km...

. The saddle is named after the Bulgarian town of Elhovo

Elhovo

Elhovo is a Bulgarian town in Yambol Province, located on the left bank of Tundzha river, between Strandzha and Sakar mountains. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous Elhovo Municipality...

, in association with the artificial Christmas tree

Artificial Christmas tree

Artificial Christmas trees are artificial pine and fir trees manufactured for the specific purpose of use as a Christmas tree. The earliest artificial Christmas trees were wooden, tree-shaped pyramids or feather trees, both developed by Germans...

 (‘elha’ in Bulgarian) brought by the Tangra 2004/05 Survey

Tangra 2004/05

The Tangra 2004/05 Expedition was commissioned by the Antarctic Place-names Commission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, managed by the Manfred Wörner Foundation, and supported by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy...

 team (Lyubomir Ivanov and Doychin Vasilev

Doychin Vasilev

Doychin Vasilev is a Bulgarian alpinist and cinematographer who has climbed five Himalayan 8,000 m peaks: Dhaulagiri , Mount Everest , Makalu , and Shishapangma and Cho Oyu . President of Alpine Club Vihren, Sofia...

) to their bivouac at Leslie Hill occupied 24 December - 28 December 2004, making in the process the first crossing of Elhovo Gap.

Location

The gap is located at 62°34′22"S 60°13′00"W (Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

n topographic survey Tangra 2004/05

Tangra 2004/05

The Tangra 2004/05 Expedition was commissioned by the Antarctic Place-names Commission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria, managed by the Manfred Wörner Foundation, and supported by the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy...

and mapping in 2005 and 2009).

Map

• L.L. Ivanov. Antarctica: Livingston Island and Greenwich, Robert, Snow and Smith Islands. Scale 1:120000 topographic map. Troyan: Manfred Wörner Foundation, 2009. ISBN 978-954-92032-6-4

Reference

• Composite Antarctic Gazetteer.