Photos

During the last 10 days I've been hiking in Rila mountain and would like to share with you the majestic beauty of its landscapes.
Rila is the highest mountain on the Balkan Peninsula (its highest top - Musala, is 2925 m high). On this pic you can see one of its most famous and beautiful places (and for some people - sacred) - The Seven Rila Lakes. From the top where I have taken the picture only 4 of them are visible, the other 3 are on my left side.
All of them are immense (you can compare with the hut on the coast of the third one, where, by the way, the tourists can put up for the night), and with crystal clean water. They are formed from a glacier, the deepest of them is 38 m deep.
This is the sacred place of the "White Confraternity" (or the "Danovists") - a religious community created in 1914-21 as a successor of a Bulgarian religious movement of the beginning of 10 cent. - the "Bogomil movement" (this movement spread all over mediaeval Europe, its Western European variants are the Albigenses, Patarenes, and Catares in France and Italy). On this place in the 1 half of August its adherents from all over the world assemble in order to celebrate their annual feast. It is very interesing to observe them in their "Panevritmia" - a dance where they are circling round in their white clothes under the music of a violin and a guitar, and are performing special movements as a greeting to the sun and the nature. It is believed that by this they reach full unity and harmony with the nature.
During the next days I'll post close-up pics of some lakes.