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We are students from ìHristo Botevî Foreign Language School ñ Kardjali. He heard about the *Iearn projects from students from ìOtets Paisiî School , Kardjali. 

Kardjali

After breaking the fetters of communist domination our country set out along a new road. For a decade now, under the flying banner of the democratic revolution ,Bulgaria has been building an up-to-date economy and creating a flourishing culture .Free and happy, our people, led by the Bulgarian Democratic Party, are confidently marching forward to democracy. Have you ever seen this southern town? Whether it is spring or summer, autumn or winter here , you will always find everything fresh.
Twenty years ago Kardjali was a remote region , not very easy access . Only dusty , badly - kept roads and country lanes led to it. The streets of the town were narrow , muddy and crooked. The people one saw walking along them seemed fated to be born in poverty and to die in want and hunger. The sky weighed heavily down upon them , and all the land around Kardjali seemed burned and yellow, a depressing landscape of waterless hills with the silhouettes of minarets rising here and there to the sky . This was a primitive region ,abandoned to time and to the whims of merciless nature. Tobacco was the only known source of wealth , but this wealth never remained in the town , under their own roofs , they could never fully enjoy the fruits of their labour , because the lions share went into the pockets of many other people. In those days , the most fitting name for the Rhodopes in general and Kardjali in particular seems to have been - a penal settlement!
Look at our town today ! Kardjali is built on an even part of the Eastern Rhodopes , on the left bank of the Arda River , at a height of 245 metres above sea level . An important highway , leading from Gyumourdjina to Rousse runs through it , and the town is the natural center of this part of Bulgaria. Here by a wonderful play of nature the mountains have gathered in their folds in exhaustible and countless wealth , which awaited careful hands to be husbaned. All the former small old shops , which exploited the working people ,have disappeared . They have been replaced by the spacious of Bazar and Albena , and the progressive methods of trading which they have introduced . The public catering establishments ñ the first class restaurants Bulgaria , Roussalka and Prostor , and the semi- cooked and cooked food shops , as well as the other trade establishments welcome their numerous customers in pleasant surroundings and provide excellent service. Science and technology have joined hands so that not only the bowels of the earth but the fields here may create abundance .The State Farm produces high grade tobacco , and delicious apples , pears , peaches and quinces ripen under the southern sun ; market gardening is also on the increase.
Several periods of architecture are to be found in Kardjali , but the town ís aspect is more than ever clearly marked by our new democratic town-planning .The ensemble of streets built and being built according to plan ,as well as housing blocks , modern public health establishments , shops , a House of Culture , cinemas , hotels, convenient sports facilities , a square and parks make the town most attractive.
This town , which formerly lagged so far behind in its cultural development , in which the first school was opened 50 years ago and had seven school children only , now has 11,650 school children and students. The great victory of the people found only two schools and 500 school children in it , while today the school teachers alone number 520. The number of schools in the entire community are 40 , among which many are special ones a Teacher ís College for primary and elementary school teachers , a Technical College of Non- Ferrous Metalurgy , a Technical College of Mechanical Engineering , and technical colleges of agriculture , economics , medical staff , and construction. There are four all-day and 10 half-day kindergartens for pre-school age children . 
Democratic culture is now the cause of all working people , and it is accessible to them all . Kardjali has developed as an important cultural centre . Its theatre has three companies , one theatrical , one variety and a puppet theatre company ; there are about 50 amateur artistic groups with more than 2,100 members a Picture Gallery , a Cultural Workerís Club , a Town Symphony Orchestra , an amateur Musical Comedy , a District Methodological Library , with a book stock of 75,000 books, a Youth House and a newspaper called ìNov Zhivot ì(New Life) , a name that most truly and fully expresses the triumphs of the democratic revolution in this region . The town is the administrative center of the Kardjali district which stretches from the wooded slopes of the Smolyan district to the boundless fields of cotton and almond of Haskovo .
Our town has the imprint of a new life and that ís why it is not at all surprising to find it called ëThe Town of the Futureí. In 20 years alone its inhabitants have grown in number of 8,000 to over 40,000 . Kardjali is in step with the first towns in the country for the pace of its construction. But there is no other which , like it, is a port on two small seas ñ the dam lakes of Stouden Kladenets and Kardjali . They are popular places for walks , sport activities and angling . They provide much of the light for our country . 
A tourist who visits the Kardjali region will find interesting  archeological sites here : a 9th century church with white marble ornaments , the multi-colored mosaics of the Armir treasure . He can visit the ruins of the strongholds of Ephrem Moniak , Perpericon , Patmost , Krivotz and Oustra . He can also see the interesting sights of Belite Brezi (The White Birches ), Vkamenenata Svatba (The Wedding Turned to Stone ), Kamennite Gubbi (The Stone Mushrooms )and last , but not least , the Arda River , whose power and energy have been harnessed for the people .Its sand is scooped up today , to make swimming pools , bridges , beaches and lawns. All that is old is uprooted , so that our new life , longed for and at last realized , may strike deep roots and flourish . 
Kardjali is a frontier town . Its inhabitants constantly guard the southern frontiers of their free country . New Kardjali is only a small part of changing Bulgaria . The working people ís love for and gratitude to the Bulgarian Democratic Party , creator of our happiness, burn here with a steady flame. Kardjali is comparatively small ,but there is hardly a town in the world where such a variety of scenery can be found in so small a compass . Kardjali is a small town ,which is a part of new, democratic Bulgaria. Bulgaria ,which is on her way to the European Union and NATO .

Atanas Alekseev Nastev 10A1 and Dimitar Rymenov Ivanov 10A1.

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Local History about the town Kardjali

Kardjali is called the town of the sun. Obviously not only because it has the greatest number of cloudless days a year. It is also known as the light city. The capital of Eastern Rodophes. But somehow the towns name is most often linked with the word "youth". By some unwritten rule it suggest to the newcomer the idea of Kardjali today.. It is what it is every however accidently passing visitor, a town of the sun and youth.
The land actually has ancient history. Oral tradition has it that in the deep recesses of the Rhodopes both the legendary Spartacos and the song-charmer Orpheus were both and lived. Archeologist have discovered in the ruins of the fortress walls, necropolises, churches and sacred places t6he traces of prehistoric times, the touch of the Thracians, Romans, Byzanties, the culture of the first Bulgarian State. 
However until the mid-19-th century these tired mountains with windswept hillsides, as if bending under the burden of centuries were tabula rasa for researches. One of the first travellers in these lands, the Frenchman Vickenells, wrote in 1847: ìKardjali. Asmall village with a mosque, populated with Bulgarian Muslims and Christians. Artisans make earthenware. There is an inn and coffee shops. Market-day once a week. An exhaustive description in a couple of lines. Only one characteristic touch could be added to this letterñ tobacco ñ the priceless gold of the Rhodopes which marred with consumption the days and nights of the local people.
The Lead-zinc Combine turns out now more than one-third of the lead and zinc in the country and its production is accepted at the London-stock exchange without certificates. Kardjali and Styden Kladenets, the power stations at the two water reservoirs flanking the county town, send energy and light to the Rhodopes. 
The spirit of exploration , the thirst of updating for progress which invariably accompanied the rebirth of Eastern Rodophers have opened to the people the unsuspected riches of the land. To the old fame of tobacco and the more recent one of the ores of non- metalliferous minerals added their fame. Practically inexhaustible deposits of bentonite, trass and zeolites were found in the vacinities of Kardjali.In the ìBentonitî Scientific and Production Combine a unique enterprise of the country, new products have been created and so far unfamiliar applications of the non-metalliferous minerals are sought.
The textile industry in Kardjali is represented by the Textile Complexì Orfeiî. It is staffed predominantly with young people who with their work not only show how traditions are being created, but also how in less then ten years prestige can be won among firms of world renown.
Justice to the latest history of Kardjali demands emphasizing the fact that the town acquired its urban outlook in the years of Bulgaro-Russian fraternity forged there. The first blocks of flats and public buildings which lined the main street - the  Geogri Dimitrov Boulevard .
Years ago the idea of Kardjali on Arda was linked among other things with the impassible roads of the Rhodopes. All kinds of transport are being developed now in this mountain town. The Trakia express train, as well as helicopter flight of the Balkan Airline censure the daily communication with the capital but the new technologies are being imported and computers made the peoples life easier and better. The 200-ton Emona vessel sails in the Kardjali water Reservoir. Itis also the only floating restaurant in the hinter land of Bulgaria. 
The country round the Reservoir is a natural ground of recreation, sport and tourism. One can already say that in Kardjali tradition was set in water sports.The Large Arpezos Swimming Complex is another material prerequisite along these lines. Two stadiums, a sporting ground, the Prostor and Gorupso parks for recreation and culture contribute, too, to the unfolding of mass physical culture and sports, to maintaining a healthy way of life.
The towns hospital has modern equipment and offers 500 beds with qualified medical help. Six uniform polytechnical schools, six technical schools and a language school, a high institute for primary and elementary school teachers ensure now the education and professional qualification of the younger generation. Cultural life of the town has its specific atmosphere and colour. The ì Dimitar Dimov ì State Theatre eight its two companies, a dramatic and a musicial-and-satire one, plays for thousand-strong crowds a year. The countries has two Cinema Complex are Orfei and Obedinenie which offer 4 screenings a day. The symphonic orchestra with the House of Culture has been increasing its appearance. The National Astronomical Observatory and the Museum are two of the town`s highlights. The exposition of the Country History Museum is rich and interesting. There are many entertaining places, too. In Kardjali there are some discos, many cafes where you can stay alone and go with friends.

Date: 29.01.2001
From: Danail Delchev and Kostadin Peltekov. Students at the Foreign Language School ìHristo Botewî , 10-th grade

The legend of Vetovo town

Thick woodlands, spacious pastures and generous river valley of the river Bely Lom -that is the nature, in which the inhabitants of Vetovo town live today. The nice nature conditions were an excellent premise for settling these lands.

The present town of Vetovo is situated on seven hills. At the excavations in the central part of the town, some people uncover Roman coins, ceramic articles and stones, which prove that people lived on this place in Roman times. One of the oldest roads passed exactly across the village, and had regularly been used by caravans. A remarkable fact that connects the present Vetovo town with the life from the times of the Slavs and Proto-Bulgarians is the rock church in "Chukata" above the river Bely Lom. It was built in the time of The first Bulgarian kingdom; thanks to the difficulties to enter it (its entrance is nine meters above the ground) the church has remained undestroyed and now the images of icons and figures in old Bulgarian language can be seen there.

According to some scientists the name of the village is connected with the environment, it is a result from the combination of the Old-Bulgarian words: "vet" and "ova", which means "hill" and "meadow", but there are also legends explaining the name. One of them is a story about the Turkish army leader, who was given this land as a reward in the times of the Turkish Joke. He went to the water-mill near the river and as he was warming himself at the fire, he filled his pipe with tobacco and decided to scoop up fire with it, but he scooped up too much and with ash and pronounced the words: "Oh, vetova daldamasa oldu"(in Turkish)- it means: "Vetovskoto scooping up happened". After that the inhabitants of the village began to call it "Vetoval", and later "Vetovo".

 By Kalojan Rumenov Georgiev,

School of Electrical Engineering, Club "INTERNET"

GOLD IN VARNA

The First Gold in the World One of the most interesting events happened in my city is the gold discovered at Varna at the end of 1972. Today, twenty-eight years later, scientists from the whole world have descended on the finds from Varna, and it has been ascertained that a necropolis had been sited there, of which 290 burials have been studied to date. As funerary offerings, the living left the dead ceramic vessels, weapons made of stone and flint, bone and copper, small ornaments and amulets – their number being more than a thousand. 

The burials studied are divided into three groups: bodies buried supine – mainly men; buried laid in the Hocker position, that is on their sides – mainly women; and symbolic burials – where only funerary offerings are laid in the burial site without human remains. Those with the most unique importance are the burials numbered 2and 3. In the burial pits there were human figures modelled in high relief in clay, upon which had been left gold decorations – diadems, earrings, anthropomorphic amulets, hairpins and beads. Today, only the faces of these figures, which were originally life – size, remain, their eyes, mouth and teeth also being worked in gold. It is probable that these burials were the symbolic graves of ancestors, who, after their deaths, were assured a smooth passage through the Underworld. In the list of the gold objects, made of unadulterated gold and being 23,5 carats, are to be found earrings, bracelets, differently formed necklaces, applique work for clothes. The cult objects or talismans – anthropomorphic and animistic amulets – were also worked with gold. Symbols of leadership, high public office and social standing consist of rectangular or square lamellae – breastplates sewn onto the clothes and decorated with gold maces. The weight of the whole hoard of gold found at Varna is more than 6,5 kilos.

 The necropolis at Varna was in use for about 150-200 years and belongs to the Stone – Copper Age (Eneolithic period) – the end of the fifth millennium BC. The discoveries in it are older than those found in Egypt, Asia Minor. It is possible to state that the tribes that inhabited the present day Bulgarian lands could be regarded as the first goldsmiths, working their decorations and cult objects out of pure gold gathered from the rivers.

My name is Ivelina Antonova Georgieva. I’m 16 years old. I’m living in Varna, Bulgaria. I’m studying at V Language School and I’m IX B class. My e – mail is:

ivelinageorgieva@yahoo.com