Archaeology: 20m ancient tower uncovered at Maltepe mound site in Bulgaria
A team from the Regional Archaeological Museum in Bulgaria’s second city Plovdiv has uncovered a 20 metre-high tower at the Maltepe mound site near the village of Manole.
The tower is made of stones and bricks, sealed with mortar.
This emerged in reports on August 28 after the site was visited by Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov, accompanied by Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov, Culture Minister Boil Banov and Plovdiv regional governor Zdravko Dimitrov.
The head of the Plovdiv Regional Museum, Associate Professor Kostadin Kissyov, briefed the delegation on the archaeological finds so far.
The coins, earthen vessels and marble architectural elements date the construction of the tower and the building of the burial mound to the period of the second to third centuries CE.
No other such building of this kind and height was preserved in Europe, Kissyov said.
“This huge monument will become one of the attractions in Europe,” he told Borissov.
The most recent discoveries, with the Doryan-style capital, as well as marble squares with molded friezes, prove the presence of a massive petrid marble pedestal with a colonnade exceeding 50 tons.
They were mounted on the top of a tower, where most probably in ancient times there was a statue of an emperor or his deputy, who ruled the province of Thrace in the second to third centuries CE.
Archeologists expect that in the northern half of the mound is the tomb of the ruler, in whose honour the majestic monument and mound were erected.
(Photo: podtepeto.com)
