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Lying midway between Veliko Tanovo and Varna, Shumen is the obvious base
from which to explore the historical sites at the ancient Bulgarian
capitals-Pliska and Preslav, and Madara with the UNESCO protected mysterious
Madara Hourseman. The city itself has a fair share of ancient monuments and
memorial houses, not least a spectacular medieval fortress that once guarded
the road to Preslav. As Turkish Shumla, Shumen was one of the fourth heavily
garrisoned citadel towns protecting the northern frontier, traces of which
can be still seen in the surviving mosque, the Tombul Dzhamiya, and the
Bezisten-a covered market built to cater for the needs of Dubrovnik
merchants in the 16th century. Shumen is surrounded to the south and west by
the Shumensko Plato national park where the monumental medieval fortress can
be found-a real archeological treasure of Thracian, Roman, Byzantine and
Bulgarian traces.
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