ABOUT BULGARIA

Geography

Bulgaria is a country situated in south-eastern Europe, bordering Romania, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, Greece, Turkey and the Black Sea. Its northern border with Romania follows the Danube river until Silistra. The land area of Bulgaria is 110,550 square kilometers, slightly larger than that of Iceland. The country is situated on the west coast of the Black Sea, with Romania to the north, Greece and Turkey to the south, and Yugoslavia to the west. Considering its small size, Bulgaria has a great variety of topographical features. Even within small parts of the country, the land may be divided into plains, plateaus, hills, mountains, basins, gorges, and deep river valleys.

Boundaries

Although external historical events often changed Bulgaria's national boundaries in its first century of existence, natural terrain features defined most boundaries after 1944, and no significant group of people suffered serious economic hardship because of border delineation. Postwar Bulgaria contained a large percentage of the ethnic Bulgarian people, although numerous migrations into and out of Bulgaria occurred at various times.

Bulgaria has a total border of about 2,264 km. Rivers account for about 680 km and the Black Sea coast for 400 km; the southern and western borders are mainly defined by ridges in high terrain. The western and northern boundaries are shared with Serbia and Montenegro and Romania, respectively, and the Black Sea coastline constitutes the entire eastern border. The Romanian border follows the Danube for 464 km from the northwestern corner of the country to the city of Silistra and then cuts to the east-southeast for 136 km. The Danube, with steep bluffs on the Bulgarian side and a wide area of swamps and marshes on the Romanian side, is one of the most effective river boundaries in Europe. The line through Dobruja is arbitrary and was redrawn several times according to international treaties. In that process, most inhabitants with strong national preferences resettled in the country of their choice. Borders to the south are with Greece and Turkey, the border with Greece being 491 kilometres long, and the Turkish border having a length of 240 kilometres.