Located on one of the highest peaks of the Rhodopes in Bulgaria, Gluhite Kamani or the Deaf Stones is a 3000-year-old rock shrine. The surface of the cliff is covered with over 500 niches in several forms: rectangular, square, circular, oval, and curvy. Although their exact purpose is unknown, the shrine constitutes Bulgaria’s largest group of rock niches. Some suggest the complex was an ancient Thracian necropolis.
The Rock Shrine of Gluhite Kamani is also known as Deaf Rocks due to the total lack of echo at the site.
Evidence suggests the use of the rock niches intensely during the Early Iron Age (from the 11th to 6th centuries BC). Nevertheless, it is uncertain whether the complex predates this period. There were also traces of a continuous settlement around the site from the pagan period to the Middle Ages. Additionally, archaeologists discovered the remains of a palatial building and a church dating from the 5th and 6th centuries AD. The discovery shows that even the tumultuous transitional period from paganism to Christianity did not interrupt life around the site.
