The story of Madara Rider

Look high up the cliff: about 23 metres above the ground, a horseman rides to the right across an almost vertical rock face 100 metres high. The Madara Rider, carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen, is a large early medieval rock relief, dated to the very late 7th or, more often, the very early 8th century, during the reign of the Bulgar Khan Tervel. The figure is almost life-size. The rider thrusts a spear into a lion lying at his horse's feet, while a dog runs after him.

His halo and garments, and a bird in front of his face, are now barely recognisable after centuries of erosion. What does it mean? No one is sure. It probably combines elements of local Thracian cults and those of the newly arrived Bulgars.

Some link it to the Bulgar deity Tangra; others think it simply shows Khan Tervel himself. In 1979 the relief was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.