Clouds over Beklemento Pass (Bulgaria)

Lille Ulven

denisegoldberg

Very nice!

This looks like a very difficult place to stand and explore with your camera. Are there some trails near this spot?

Lille Ulven

Thank you, @denisegoldberg.

I probably should have added some of the history of Beklemento Pass, the highest point of the Troyan-Karanan-Pass at an altitude of 1630meters, to the photo.
From the late 1300s until 1878 Bulgaria was under the Ottoman rule but, as with many other European countries, in the 1830s a liberation movement rose. After Russia won several of the Russo-Ottoman wars, they also came to the aid of the Bulgarians in 1877. One of the best-known battles of that war between 1877 and 1878 was fought at Beklemento Pass (another one at Shipka Pass), which opened up the southern route through the Balkan Mountains.
In commemoration of that battle and the resistance in Bulgaria against the nazi-supportive-regime of the 1930s-1940s a memorial, called Freedom Arch, was erected on top of Beklemento Pass (see below) and opened in 1980, so now there is this huge parking lot and the Freedom Arch on top of Beklemento Pass and it is all easily accessible by car. This photo is taken from the North-West corner of said parking lot. But yes, I also have seen some other paths and roads going up that mountain, so hiking should be possible.

On the inner side you have the Russo-soldiers of the 1877/78 war, and on the right, you have Bulgarian girls/women who are welcoming these soldiers with bread, according to Bulgarian customs.
Today this monument of the communist era belongs to those almost forgotten ones, you can still climb on top of it - though I did not as the staircase in the right column looked a little like it might not last.