The rock lift
Rising inside the cliff to the plateau top.
Spiritus — Public domain · AlexFilipov85 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Иванка Вълчанова — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Иванка Вълчанова — CC BY-SA 4.0
The **Stone Forest**, Pobiti Kamani, about twenty kilometres from Varna in the same direction: hundreds of natural hollow stone columns standing in desert-looking sand, their origin still argued between organic and mineral explanations. It looks like nothing else in Bulgaria and entry is cheap. A little further is **Madara** with its horseman carved into the cliff — an eighth-century relief on the World Heritage list and a Bulgarian national symbol, about seventy kilometres out. The three make one day by car.
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Ovech Fortress stands on an **isolated rock plateau** rising a hundred and twenty metres above the town of Provadia, with vertical cliffs on all four sides — the position itself is the fortification. The plateau was used from Roman times to the seventeenth century, passing through Byzantine, Bulgarian and Ottoman hands, and was a watch point on the road between the Danube and the Black Sea. Three things distinguish it. A **well seventy-eight metres deep** cut into the rock to secure water during a siege. A **stair carved into the cliff** descending to the plain, which was the old way up. And a **modern lift** built into the rock face that carries visitors to the summit — which makes it among the easiest Bulgarian fortresses to reach despite its position. At the top are the remains of walls, towers, churches and a mosque, with a view across the plain. **Check the lift is running** — without it the climb is a very steep path.
Rising inside the cliff to the plateau top.
The old way down through the rock to the plain.
Above Provadia, about 38 km west of Varna