Archaeological tour-From the Neolithic to Modern times in Augusta Trayana

At 08:00 your guide will pick you up from your hotel/accommodation in Sofia and your archeological day trip will begin. After 3 hours of driving you will reach Stara Zagora. The first stop will be at the Neolithic houses. They were part of a big Neolithic settlement. These houses are one of the best-preserved prehistorical buildings in Europe. The exposition will bring you back in the VII Millennium BC and your guide will do his best to explain who those people were and how they lived. In addition to the houses, you will also see, an archaeological collection of objects, related to the culture and the religion of the Stone age people, discovered in the Stone age settlements.

Our next stop will be the ancient forum of the Roman city Augusta Trayana. We will walk on the original Decumanus Maximus and Cardo Maximus at the intersection of which is laying the forum, where the city council has taken important decisions and where gladiator fights have taken place. We will visit the Archeological museum where you will see the objects, discovered in the city from the Neolithic period, the Antiquity when the Romans and the Thracians lived, through the Medieval Bulgarian period and later Ottoman rule. After the museum, we will walk to a Late Roman private house where you will see amazing mosaics made in early-Christian style.

After the visit to the remains of Augusta Trayana, we will walk in the modern city center of Stara Zagora. The main street gives lots of opportunities for wonderful lunch.

The last museum that we will visit for the day is one of the most interesting that you have visited- the Museum of Religions. It is situated in one of the oldest Mosques in the Balkans- Eski Mosque from the early XV century. The building is one of the very few that survived the Ottoman destruction of the city during the Russian-Ottoman war in 1877. The Mosque is decorated beautifully but there are some secret paintings implemented in the Orthodox Muslim style. The Mosque was constructed on top of an X century Christian church, which was built on top of an Ancient Thracian temple. This place was spiritually important for more the two thousand years. Every culture has left its mark and all layers are visible in this amazing museum.

After the amazing Museum of Religions, we will start our trip back to Sofia. Your guide will drop you at your hotel/accommodation in the city.