Kaliakra is a long and narrow headland

Headlands and bays

Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment.- Geology and geography :Headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by high,...

 in the Southern Dobruja

Southern Dobruja

Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...

 region of the northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coastline. White and golden sandy beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km long coast...

, located 12 km east of Kavarna

Kavarna

Kavarna is a Black Sea coastal town and seaside resort in the Dobruja region of northeastern Bulgaria. It lies 64 km northeast of Varna and 49 km from Dobrich on the international road E87. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 11,397 inhabitants. A little yacht port, a...

 and 60 km northeast of Varna

Varna

Varna is the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and third-largest in Bulgaria after Sofia and Plovdiv, with a population of 334,870 inhabitants according to Census 2011...

. The coast is steep with vertical cliffs reaching 70 m down to the sea.

Kaliakra is a nature reserve, where dolphin

Dolphin

Dolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in 17 genera. They vary in size from and , up to and . They are found worldwide, mostly in the shallower seas of the continental shelves, and are carnivores, mostly eating...

s, cormorant

Cormorant

The bird family Phalacrocoracidae is represented by some 40 species of cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed recently, and the number of genera is disputed.- Names :...

s and pinniped

Pinniped

Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...

s can be observed. It also features the remnants of the fortified walls, water-main, baths and residence of Despot Dobrotitsa

Dobrotitsa

Dobrotitsa was a Bulgarian noble, ruler of the de facto independent Principality of Karvuna and the Kaliakra fortress from 1354 to 1379–1386....

 in the short-lived Principality of Karvuna

Principality of Karvuna

The Principality of Karvuna or Despotate of Dobruja was a 14th-century quasi-independent state in the region of modern Dobruja. It emerged as a polity under the influence of the Byzantine Empire, and probably had a population composed of Bulgarians, Gagauz, Greeks, Tatars, and Vlachs.The...

's medieval capital. The Bolata

Bolata

Bolata is a small cove located in the Northern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. Its area has a statute of a Nature reserve.-Geography:Bolata cove is located at the northern rocky coastline of the Bulgarian seaside. It is 3 km to the north of the Kaliakra headland...

 Cove with a small sheltered beach lies just north at the mouth of a picturesque canyon, also part of the nature reserve.

Name and history

The following names have been used for the headland and the fortress throughout their history:

• Thracian
  Thracian language
  The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times in Southeastern Europe by the Thracians, the northern neighbors of the Ancient Greeks. The Thracian language exhibits satemization: it either belonged to the Satem group of Indo-European languages or it was strongly...
  
  : Tirizis (Τίριζις)
• Byzantine Greek language: Akre (΄`Ακραι)

The name "Kaliakra" is of Byzantine Greek

Medieval Greek

Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, is the stage of the Greek language between the beginning of the Middle Ages around 600 and the Ottoman conquest of the city of Constantinople in 1453. The latter date marked the end of the Middle Ages in Southeast Europe...

 origin. It is a combination of "καλός" ("beautiful") and "άκρα" ("headland" or "fortress") and is traditionally translated as "Beautiful Headland".

Kaliakra was the site of the naval Battle of Cape Kaliakra

Battle of Cape Kaliakra

The Battle of Cape Kaliakra or Battle off Cape Kaliakra was the last naval battle of the Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792. It took place on 11 August 1791 off the coast of northern Bulgaria in the Black Sea...

 on 11 August 1791, part of the Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792).

The first modern lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 on Kaliakra was built in 1866 by the Compagnie des Phares de l’Empire Ottomane; the present one (a 10-m cylindrical stone masonry tower with lantern and gallery) was erected in 1901, with focal plane

Cardinal point (optics)

In Gaussian optics, the cardinal points consist of three pairs of points located on the optical axis of an ideal, rotationally symmetric, focal, optical system...

 height of 68 m and a white flash (every 5 seconds); it also has a radio navigation

Radio navigation

Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially...

 emitter and a foghorn

Foghorn

A foghorn or fog signal or fog bell is a device that uses sound to warn vehicles of hazards or boats of the presence of other vehicles in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport...

.

Near Kaliakra, there is a large mediumwave broadcasting facility

Kaliakra transmitter

Kaliakra transmitter is a huge facility for mediumwave broadcasting, which was built after 1988 by former Soviet Union as relay transmitter for Southeast Europe. After the collapse of communism in 1989, there was no requirement for this facility and work was stopped. At that point of time 9 of the...

, which went never in service as planned. Currently (2009), several wind power

Wind power

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, windmills for mechanical power, windpumps for water pumping or drainage, or sails to propel ships....

 facilities are under development in the vicinity. The area now has 3 championship golf courses designed by the legendary golfers Gary Player and Ian Woosnam.

Legends

Probably the most popular legend about the place is the one about 40 Bulgarian girls, who preferred to tie their hair together and jump into the Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 instead of the prospect to be captured by the Ottomans

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. An obelisk

Obelisk

An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...

 dedicated to this legend is placed at the entrance to the cape, called The Gate of the 40 Maidens.

Another legend tells the story of Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas

Saint Nicholas , also called Nikolaos of Myra, was a historic 4th-century saint and Greek Bishop of Myra . Because of the many miracles attributed to his intercession, he is also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker...

, the patron of seamen, who was running away from the Ottomans and God was making the earth under him longer and longer, so he could escape, and the cape was formed this way. The saint was eventually captured and a chapel was built in 1993, symbolizing his grave. A dervish

Dervish

A Dervish or Darvesh is someone treading a Sufi Muslim ascetic path or "Tariqah", known for their extreme poverty and austerity, similar to mendicant friars in Christianity or Hindu/Buddhist/Jain sadhus.-Etymology:The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Iranian...

 monastery is also said to have existed on the same place during Ottoman rule

History of early Ottoman Bulgaria

The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly 500 years, from the conquest of the Second Bulgarian Empire by the Ottoman Empire in 1396, to its liberation in 1878. Bulgarian territories were administrated as the Rumelia Eyalet. The Ottoman rule was a period marked by oppression and misgovernment and...

, which is thought to have preserved the relics of Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 Bektashi

Bektashi

Bektashi Order or Bektashism is an Islamic Sufi order founded in the 13th century by the Persian saint Haji Bektash Veli. In addition to the spiritual teachings of Haji Bektash Veli the order was significantly influenced during its formative period by both the Hurufis as well as the...

 saint Sarı Saltık.

A third legend is about Lysimachus

Lysimachus

Lysimachus was a Macedonian officer and diadochus of Alexander the Great, who became a basileus in 306 BC, ruling Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedon.-Early Life & Career:...

, a successor of Alexander the Great, who seized the royal treasure and escaped to Kaliakra, dying in a major storm along with his whole fleet.

Honour

Kaliakra Glacier

Kaliakra Glacier

Kaliakra Glacier is a glacier in northeastern Livingston Island, Antarctica extending 7 km in east-west direction and 8 km in north-south direction...

 on 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 is named after Kaliakra.