Rila as seen from Kostenets

Climbers near Musala in Rila

The average annual precipitation in Rila is several times the average for Bulgaria

The Seven Rila Lakes

The source of the Maritsa under Marishki vrah

Landscape from Rila close to the Seven Lakes

The Rila Monastery

Rila (Bulgarian: Рила ['ri.lə]) is a mountain in southwestern Bulgaria and the highest mountain of Bulgaria and the Balkans, with its highest peak being Musala at 2,925 m. The massif is also the sixth highest mountain in Europe (when each mountain is represented by its highest peak only), coming after the Caucasus, the Alps, Sierra Nevada, the Pyrenees and Mount Etna. The larger part of the mountain is occupied by the Rila National Park. Musala (Bulgarian: Мусала) is the highest peak in Bulgaria and the entire Balkan Peninsula, standing at 2,925 m. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1200, 1185 KB) The Seven Rila Lakes in Bulgaria. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1600x1200, 1185 KB) The Seven Rila Lakes in Bulgaria. ... The Seven Rila Lakes (Седем(те) Рилски езера) are a group of lakes of glacial origin, situated in the northwestern Rila Mountains in Bulgaria. ... The Maritsa or Evros (Bulgarian: Марица, Greek: Εβρος, Romanized as Hebrus, Turkish: Meriç) river is ca . ... Rila Mountain, Bulgaria File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Rila Mountain, Bulgaria File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1232, 784 KB) La bildo estas kopiita de wikipedia:de. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1632x1232, 784 KB) La bildo estas kopiita de wikipedia:de. ... Rila Monastery with the medieval tower The Rila Monastery (Bulgarian: Рилски манастир, Rilski manastir) is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. ... Balkan peninsula with northwest border Isonzo-Krka-Sava The Balkans is the historic and geographic name used to describe a region of southeastern Europe. ... Musala (Bulgarian: Мусала) is the highest peak in Bulgaria and the entire Balkan Peninsula, standing at 2,925 m. ... The metre, or meter (U.S.), is a measure of length. ... World map showing Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is one of the seven continents of the Earth. ... The Ethnolinguistic patchwork of the modern Caucasus - CIA map Russia Georgia Azerbaijan (Azer. ... The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ... Situation of Sierra Nevada in the Iberian Peninsula. ... Central Pyrenees. ... Mount Etna (also known as Mongibeddu in Sicilian and Mongibello in Italian) is an active volcano on the east coast of Sicily, close to Messina and Catania. ...

The name Rila is allegedly of Thracian origin and is thought to mean "well-watered mountain", owing to Rila's abundance of glacial lakes (about 200) and hot springs in the faulty areas. Some of the Balkans' longest and deepest rivers originate from Rila, including the Maritsa, the Iskar and the Mesta. The Thracian language was the Indo-European language spoken in ancient times by the Thracians in South-Eastern Europe. ... The Seven Rila Lakes in Rila, Bulgaria are typical representatives of lakes with glacial origin A glacial lake is a lake with origins in a melted glacier. ... Green Dragon Spring at Norris Geyser A hot spring is a place where warm or hot groundwater issues from the ground on a regular basis for at least a predictable part of the year, and is significantly above the ambient ground temperature (which is usually around 55~57 F or... The Maritsa or Evros (Bulgarian: Марица, Greek: Εβρος, Romanized as Hebrus, Turkish: Meriç) river is ca . ... The Iskar (Bulgarian: Искър; Latin Oescus) is the longest river in Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. ... Mesta (Bulgarian: Места) or Nestos (Greek: Νέστος) is a river in Bulgaria and Greece. ...

Culturally, Rila is famous for the Rila Monastery, Bulgaria's largest and most important monastery founded in the 10th century by Saint John of Rila. Rila Monastery with the medieval tower The Rila Monastery (Bulgarian: Рилски манастир, Rilski manastir) is the largest and most famous Eastern Orthodox monastery in Bulgaria. ... As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... Saint John of Rila (Bulgarian: свети Иван Рилски, sveti Ivan Rilski) (876 – circa 946) was the first Bulgarian hermit and the founder of the Rila Monastery. ...

Geology

Rila is a dome-shaped horst mountain, part of the Balkans' oldest land, the Macedo-Thracian Massif. It was formed by granite and gneiss rocks and crystal schists during the Paleozoic (250,000,000 years ago), with Rila's alpine relief being formed later, 10-12,000 years ago, after the Würm glaciation, when the snow line was at 2,100 m above sea level. Above this line glaciers radically changed the existing relief, creating deep cirques, sharp pyramid-shaped peaks, rock pinnacles, various valleys, moraines and other typical glacial formations. USGS image In physical geography and geology, a horst is the raised fault block bounded by normal faults. ... Gneiss Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic processes from preexisting formations that were originally either igneous or sedimentary rocks. ... Schist The schists form a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. ... The Paleozoic Era is a major division of the geologic timescale, one of four geologic eras. ... The Wisconsin (in North America), Weichsel (in Scandinavia), Devensian (in the British Isles), Midlandian (in Ireland) or Würm glaciation (in the Alps) is the most recent period of the Ice Age, and ended some 10,000 Before Present (BP). ... The term above mean sea level (AMSL) refers to the elevation (on the ground) or altitude (in the air) of any object, relative to the average sea level. ... A glacier is a large, long-lasting river of ice that is formed on land and moves in response to gravity and undergoes internal deformation. ... A cirque is an amphitheatre-like valley of glacial origin, formed by glacial erosion at the head of the glacier. ... Moraine at Mono Lake, California, United States Moraines clearly seen on a side glacier of the Gorner Glacier, Zermatt, Switzerland. ...

Borders and climate

Rila has an area of 2,400 km². The dome of the mountain rises over the surrounding mountain valleys, with the Borovets Saddle (1,305 m) connecting the main Musala Ridge with the Shipchan and Shumnitsa ridges that connect to the Ihtiman Sredna Gora mountains through the Gate of Trajan pass. The Yundola Saddle (1,375 m) and the Abraham Saddle (1,295 m) link Rila with the Rhodopes to the east, while the connection with Pirin is the Predel Saddle (1,140 m), the one with Verila being the Klisura Saddle (1,025 m). A square metre (US spelling: square meter) is by definition the area enclosed by a square with sides each 1 metre long. ... A view of Sredna Gora from the Thracian tomb near Starosel Sredna Gora (Средна Гора) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated parallel with Stara Planina and extending to the river Iskar to the west and the elbow of Tundzha north of Yambol to the east. ... The Gate of Trajan, also known as Trajans Gate, is a hill pass near Sofia, Bulgaria. ... The Rhodopes (also spelled Rodopi) are a mountain range, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece. ... Vihren from the south Kamenitsa Peak and the lake Tevno ezero Pirin range as seen from Kalimantsi village The Pirin Mountains (Bulgarian: Пирин) are a mountain range in southwestern Bulgaria, with Vihren (2,914 m high) the highest peak, situated at . The range extends about 40 km northwest-southeast, and about...

The climate is typically mountain, with 2,000 mm of precipitation on Musala yearly, 80% of which of snow. The lowest average temperature on Musala ever measured in February is –11.6°C and the absolute minimum is -31.2°C. An average temperature for August is 5.4°C, the maximum being 18.7°C. A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter), symbol mm is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ... Animation of snowcover changing with the seasons. ... The degree Celsius (°C) is a unit of temperature named after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius (1701–1744), who first proposed a similar system in 1742. ...

Subdivision

Rila is subdivided into several parts depending on their geographic position.

• East Rila or the Musala Ridge is the highest and vastest part. The highest peak, as well as 12 of the 18 peaks over 2,700 m are located there — Musala, Yastrebets, Irechek, Deno Mancho, etc. The Musala Lakes lie in this part of Rila, as well as Ledeno ezero ("Icy Lake"), the highest lake of the Balkans at 2,709 m. Other lakes in East Rila include the Maritsa Lakes and the Ropalitsa Lakes. The renowned mountain resort of Borovets is also located in this part of the mountain.
• Central Rila or the Skakavets Ridge is the smallest part (1/10 of the total area), most famous for the glacial lakes — the Fish Lakes, Dzhendem Lakes, Monastery Lakes. The largest glacial lake of the Balkans, Smradlivo ezero ("Stinky Lake") with an area of 21.2 km² is located in Central Rila, as well as the peaks Kanarata, Cherna polyana, Malak Skakavets and Golyam Skakavets, Rilets. The ridge of the Skakavtsi (the peaks of Golyam Skakavets and Malak Skakavets, Pchelina and Sveti Duh) rises isolated between the Levi and Beli Iskar rivers. Another well-known ridge in the area is the one of Marinkovitsa and Vodniya chal, extending to the forest reserve of Kobilino branishte.
• Northwest Rila takes up 25% of Rila's total area. The highest peak is Malyovitsa at 2,730 m. The Seven Rila Lakes are an important landmark in this part, as well as the many remote peaks and small lakes.
• Southwest Rila or the Kapatnik Ridge occupies 30% of Rila and has the oldest reserve of Bulgaria. Apart from its small northern part, Southwest Rila does not have the alpine appearance of the other parts.

Borovets in winter Borovets in summer Borovets (Боровец), known as Chamkoriya (Чамкория) until the middle of the 20th century, is a popular Bulgarian mountain resort situated in Sofia Province, on the northern slopes of Rila, at an altitude of 1350 m. ... The Iskar (Bulgarian: Искър; Latin Oescus) is the longest river in Bulgaria, a right tributary of the Danube. ... The Seven Rila Lakes (Седем(те) Рилски езера) are a group of lakes of glacial origin, situated in the northwestern Rila Mountains in Bulgaria. ...

Peaks in Rila

• Musala — 2925 m
• Malka Musala — 2902 m
• Ovcharets — 2768 m
• Golyam Kupen — 2731 m
• Malyovitsa — 2729 m
• Popova kapa — 2704 m
• Malka Malyovitsa — 2698 m
• Lopushki vrah — 2698 m
• Lovnitsa — 2695 m
• Kanarata — 2691 m
• Orlovets — 2685 m
• Pastri slap (Aladzha slap) – 2684 m
• Zliya zab — 2678 m
• Eleni vrah — 2654 m
• Ravni vrah (Ravni chal) — 2637 m
• Belmeken (Kolarov) — 2627 m
• Kamilata — 2621 m
• Golyam Mechi vrah — 2618 m
• Dvuglav — 2605 m
• Golyam Mermer (Mramorets) — 2598 m
• Dodov (Drushlevishki) vrah — 2597 m
• Kozi vrah — 2587 m
• Iglata — 2575 m
• Golyam Mechit — 2568 m
• Ushite — 2560 m
• Ptichi vrah (Ashiklar) — 2536 m
• Malak Mechit — 2535 m
• Yanchov vrah — 2481 m
• Malak Mechi vrah — 2474 m
• Strazhnik (Kurdzhilak) — 2469 m
• Budachki kamak — 2447 m
• Kukov vrah — 2411 m
• Tsarev vrah — 2376 m
• Damga (Ivan Vazov) — 2342 m
• Markov kamak (Gorna Kadiitsa) — 2342 m
• Malka Popova kapa — 2180 m
• Treshtenik — 2020 m
• Angelov vrah
• Malak Lopushki vrah
• Malak Mermer

Musala (Bulgarian: Мусала) is the highest peak in Bulgaria and the entire Balkan Peninsula, standing at 2,925 m. ...

External links

• Rila National Park website
• Website on Northwest Rila

Winter panorama of Northwestern Rila seen from Yastrebets

Coordinates: 42°08′N 23°33′E Map of Earth showing lines of latitude (horizontally) and longitude (vertically), Eckert VI projection; large version (pdf, 1. ...