Pomorie

Pomorie stands on a narrow peninsula between the sea and a large salt lake, and salt is the through-line: the lake has been worked by solar evaporation since antiquity, a salt museum explains the process and the pans are still harvested, and the lye mud is used at a spa for treatment, which brings a steady flow of Bulgarian visitors. The lake is also an important bird site. On the edge of town is a Thracian beehive tomb of the second or third century AD, a circular chamber with a hollow central pillar supporting a corbelled dome, unusual in form and well preserved. The old town on the peninsula has a monastery, some timber houses and a working fishing harbour.

History

The town was founded as Anchialos, near the sea in Greek, probably in the 5th or 4th century BC as a colony of Apollonia, and after the Romans took the coast in 29-28 BC it became part of the province of Thrace and a city under Trajan, thriving under the Severans as the main port of Thrace. The Goths briefly took it around 270, Diocletian stayed here from 28 to 30 October 294, under the Ottomans it was called Ahyolu, and in 1934 it was renamed Pomorie, which like its Greek name means by the sea (Wikipedia, Pomorie).

What's there

• A Thracian beehive tomb - a corbelled dome on a hollow central pillar.
• Solar salt pans - worked since antiquity and still harvested.
• The mud spa - lye treatment drawing Bulgarian visitors.
• The lake bird life - waders and wildfowl on the salt water.

When to go

May to September for the coast and the spa. Half a day. The tomb has limited hours. Migration in autumn brings birds to the lake. July and August are busy.

Practical notes

Development along the peninsula is heavy and unattractive. The spa facilities are dated. The tomb is small and takes twenty minutes. Beaches are crowded in season.

Nearby

Nesebar is north; Burgas and Lake Atanasovsko lie west.

Key facts