Area: 110 994 sq. km

Population: 7679290 (2006 est.)

Official Language: Bulgarian is the official language, using the Cyrilic alphabet. The Bulgarian language belongs to the South Slavic group, along with Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, and Macedonian A number of dialects remain in common speech.

Currency
The country’s currency is the Bulgarian Lev = 100 stotinki (BG coins). The exchange rate is announced every day. Money can be exchanged in banks and 24-hour change bureaus.

Capital – Sofia (pop. of 1530 000).

Bigger cities – Plovdiv (pop. of 430000), Varna (pop. of 389 000), Bourgas (pop. of 240 000), Rouse (pop. of 170 000), Stara Zagora (pop. of 150 000), Pleven (pop. of 130 000), Sliven (pop. of 110 000), Dobrich (pop. of 100 000).

The Bulgarians have ancient and beautiful legend about the creation of the world. God divided the land and he gave piece to every nation. Only the Bulgarians who were doing everything slowly and with no hurry arrived not until God had given the whole land away. In order not to leave them return empty-handed, God had taken a little land from each country and had given it to Bulgaria.Since then this small country not only has extremely diverse landscape and all kinds of natural recourses, but Bulgaria is the most beautiful country in the world.

Geographic Location - Located in the south-east of the Balkan Peninsula, Bulgaria borders Romania (609 km.) to the North, the Black Sea to the East (378 km.), Turkey (259 km.) and Greece (493 km.) to the South and Serbia (341 km.) and Macedonia (165 km.) to the West. The river Danube forms the country’s northern frontier and offers quick access to Central Europe. A crossroads location between Europe and Asia facilitates transport flows through the country.

Landscape - Bulgarian landscape is extremely diverse. The North is dominated by the vast lowlands of the Danube plains, the South by highlands and elevated plains. The average altitude of Bulgaria is 470 m and overall, lowlands prevail. There are eight mountains in Bulgaria, which rise more than 2 000 m above sea level. The highest peak (Moussala 2 925 m) can be found in the Rila Mountains. Along the Black Sea coast to the East of Bulgaria, the 130 km of good, wide beaches are among the country’s main tourist attractions.

Climate - A continental climate with hot summers and cold winters made the country a popular beach resort while offering good skiing in the winter. A Mediterranean influence can be felt in the valleys of the South-Western Rhodopi Mountains, where dry summers and mild winters prevail. The influence of the Black sea is limited to a narrow strip of land (200-300 km) in Eastern Bulgaria.