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The Madara Horsemen |
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IT IS THE DEFINITIVE ICON FOR BULGARIANS: a carved rock relief depicting the life-size forms of a horseman trailed by a running dog and a speared lion caught beneath the crushing hooves of the horse. Inscriptions in Greek on either side describe the early history of the Bulgarian state, founded in 681.
The scene presents itself 25 meters up a 100-meter-high cliff in the Madara plateau in northeastern Bulgaria. But this enduring signature of Bulgarian culture flakes away with every season. Exposure to the elements-especially freeze-thaw-cycles- microorganisms, pollution erosion, and cliff face shearing and earth tremors threaten the destruction of the scene. Its preservation presents a technical conundrum: the relief was meant to be of the open air but some Bulgarian experts have concluded that installing a permanent roof over it is the only solution-and as soon as possible so that stabilization of the carvings can begin. The Madara Horseman is on the World Heritage List
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