The Madara Rider

High on a sheer limestone cliff in northeastern Bulgaria, a horseman rides to the right, spearing a lion, with a dog running behind. The relief was cut around the early eighth century, in the first period of the Bulgarian state, and it sits more than twenty metres above the base of the cliff, which raises the obvious question of how it was carved at all. Greek inscriptions beside it record events of the eighth and ninth centuries and are among the earliest written sources for Bulgarian history. It is the only relief of its type in Europe and has become a national symbol, reproduced on coins. Around it, a stairway climbs the cliff to a plateau fortress, and caves at the base were occupied from prehistory onwards.

History

The relief is dated to the very late 7th or, more often, the very early 8th century, in the reign of the Bulgar Khan Tervel (701-718), soon after the Bulgars settled in the region in 680-681. Three partly preserved inscriptions in Medieval Greek surround it: the oldest is Tervel's and tells of a treaty with the Byzantine emperor Justinian, and the others name the khans Krum (802-814) and Omurtag (814-831). Excavations in 1924-1935 found below the relief the remains of a complex thought to have been a pagan shrine and a ruler's dwelling, with a damaged inscription of Omurtag naming the god Tangra. The monument was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1979, appeared on Bulgarian coins of 1999 and 2000, and since early 2026 has been on Bulgaria's euro coins (Wikipedia, Madara Rider).

What's there

• The relief itself - the horseman, lion and dog, best seen with binoculars or a long lens.
• The inscriptions - early medieval Greek texts cut beside the figure.
• The cliff stairway - steps up to the plateau and the fortress remains above.
• The cave sanctuaries - occupied shelters at the base of the cliff.

When to go

April to October. Morning light falls on the cliff face and shows the carving best; by late afternoon it is in shadow and much harder to read.

Good to know

The relief is high up and heavily eroded, and with the naked eye it is far less legible than photographs suggest; binoculars or a zoom lens transform the visit. The stairway to the plateau is long and steep. The site is remote for most itineraries and works best combined with Pliska or Veliki Preslav nearby.

Nearby

Shumen fortress and the Pliska and Preslav capital sites are within half an hour.

Key facts