Have you heard that one of the oldest cities in the world is located in Bulgaria? - Plovdiv is the second largest city in the country and the oldest continuously inhabited city in Europe. This fascinating, historic city has been selected as the European Capital of Culture for 2019.

In 1977, NASA included one of Bulgaria's best-known folk songs on the Voyager Golden Record! The images and sounds selected for the two phonograph records are meant to portray an image of life on earth to any extraterrestrial beings the craft may encounter.

Now get into your 5 senses…which pops into your mind first? Perhaps it will be your sense of taste. Dairy lovers may be aware that the bacteria strain needed to produce yoghurt's mild texture is called Lactobacillus bulgaricus. But did you know that these natural bacteria are found only in mammals and plants living in Bulgaria? It's true!

Bulgaria has 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 7 cultural and 3 Natural. But that's not all! We have seven traditions included in the UNESCO’s list of protected non-material cultural heritage and 15 sites on their tentative list.

We can’t forget to mention that Bulgaria was the second largest wine exporter in the 1980’s only topped by France and our grape growing is dating back to the times of the Thracians. Even if you are not а wine lover, you will fall in love with our beautiful rolling vineyards. And if that isn't enough, Bulgaria is also the world's largest producer of lavender and the second largest producer of rose oil.

More than 2 000 mineral springs in the country and in additional you can pour the healing water into your bottle almost on every corner. Well, not only corner… Almost on every curve of the route, in the middle of the main square or just from your tap at home. Yes, only in Sofia we have 31 separate reservoirs and 75 water sources of mineral waters, which makes the Capital one of the richest municipalities in the world by mineral water wealth.

Did you know that the oldest processed gold in the world was found near the Black Sea in Varna, Bulgaria? A worker who was excavating in the area in 1972 discovered an ancient Necropolis (grave site). To date, 294 graves have been found at the site, which dates to between 4600 and 4200 BC. One particularly rich grave contained 3,000 gold artifacts, an amount greater that the combined total of all other known sites in the world form that era. The cache was shown for first time in United States in 1988, in New York City in 2009 - 2010 and it was exhibited for 7 months in Japan as ``The Oldest Gold in the World - The First European Civilization``.

Glagolitic alphabet was devised by St. Cyril and Methodius in the 850s and introduced to the world by the First Bulgarian Empire in 886 AD. At the beginning of the 10th century the Glagolitic alphabet was gradually substitute by the Cyrillic script developed around the Preslav Literary School, Bulgaria. In 2007 the Cyrillic script became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek ones.

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