Markov's table
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Overview
About this site
Overview
Markova trapeza (Маркова трапеза, Markov's table) is a rock sanctuary in the locality of Ostar kamak, near the village of Chokoba, Sliven Province, Bulgaria. It is centred on a cut altar on the top of a vertical-walled rock.
Local belief reads the pits and channels in the stone as traces left by Krali Marko, and the site is tied to local rites of passage.
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Article
Markov's table
On its top is the so-called “Markov's table”, with an altar carved into the rock, formed by two rectangles set one inside the other.
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Маркова трапезаCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Маркова трапезаCC BY-SA 4.0
The walls of the easternmost rock of the sanctuary are cut vertically. On its top is the so-called “Markov's table”, with an altar carved into the rock, formed by two rectangles set one inside the other. North-east of the platform with the altar, on a lower level of the rock, two cisterns (“щерни”) are cut.
Beside the megalithic altar there are cuttings in the form of pits and channels. By popular belief these are the marks of the dog, the staff and the salt-cellar of Krali Marko. Nearby are the so-called “footsteps” of the hero, usually full of rainwater that runs down channels from the table.
FolkloreSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Маркова трапезаCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Маркова трапезаCC BY-SA 4.0
Before the custom of Bunets, girls of Chokoba go out to this place to wash with water from the “footsteps of Krali Marko” and to tie a red thread to the dog-rose bush beside it. According to popular cult and ritual practice, the young brides of the village, and daughters-in-law who have come from other villages, are also taken there to wash with the water from the footsteps and to tie a red thread to the bush.
According to Professor Vasil Markov, in both cases there are traces of rites of passage connected with the megalithic sanctuary.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Thracian rock sanctuaries of Bulgaria
In the Eastern Rhodope and Strandzha mountains of Bulgaria, rocks have been cut, carved and used as sanctuaries for thousands of years, and the Atlas lists many of them as "megaliths". The Thracians were an Indo-European-speaking people who inhabited large parts of south-eastern Europe in ancient times, including modern Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, northern Greece and European Turkey, and they reused many of the sites. Strandzha has a large concentration of ruins of Thracian sanctuaries, sacrificial altars and dolmens.
Perperikon, in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains 15 kilometres north-east of Kardzhali, is an ancient Thracian city on a rocky hill 470 metres high, thought to have been a sacred place; it is described as the largest megalith ensemble site in the Balkans. In the Middle Ages it served as a fortress. Beglik Tash, a prehistoric rock sanctuary on the southern Black Sea coast north of Primorsko, was reused by Thracian tribes in the Iron Age.
Many of the places listed as megaliths here are natural rock formations. Beglik Tash is a natural rock formation of megaliths of hardened magma, from a volcano of the Mesozoic era; most of the megaliths have traces of carving for Thracian rituals, and there are the remains of a labyrinth and a "Thracian sun-clock" formed of huge stones, as well as a 150-ton rock. It is often hard to tell where nature ends and human work begins.
Dating depends on the finds in the few excavated parts, and most sites are listed with a broad range.
When visiting, look for traces of carving on the rock, and for steps and niches.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Thracians, Wikipedia: Perperikon, Wikipedia: Beglik Tash, Wikipedia: Strandzha · CC BY-SA 4.0
Where it stands
Bulgaria
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 42°31′00″ N, 26°21′00″ EFor a GPS or map app: 42.51667, 26.35000
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q25480289wikidata.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Маркова трапеза" (Bulgarian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors
- Wikipedia (Bulgarian): Маркова трапезаCC BY-SA 4.0
- Wikidata Q25480289CC0