The Maltepe Mound

The Maltepe mound is located 17 km northeast of Plovdiv, next to Manole. It was first recorded and described by brother Shkorpil. Its diameter is 140 m and the height is 26 m, and about 80 000 cubic meters of earth are used for its rise. The archeological research of the mound is conducted by a team of the Regional Archaeological Museum in Plovdiv. So far, archaeologists have only unearthed the topmost layer, revealing an 8-meter-long wall. Their assumptions are that it is from the middle of the 3rd century and it has buried a Roman soldier. There is, however, evidence that it was possible it was built at the end of the 1st or the beginning of the second century of the new era for a Thracian king who was the deputy of the Roman Emperor. Around the mound there was a 450-meter-high wall, 2 meters high, and a large statue on the top. There is also an ancient cemetery open there. If these assumptions prove right, it turns Maltepe into a unique discovery. Such graves, but not in the form of a pyramid, are located in Palmyra and Rome, but only 5 meters high. (Source: www.marica.bg)