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The Seven Hills (tepeta)

Plovdiv is built on syenite hills and is known as "the city of the seven hills". Six survive today — Markovo Tepe was quarried away during the 20th century.

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The Seven Hills (tepeta)
Avidius ( talk ) · Public domain Image license

Story of the place

How to read this place

Plovdiv is the city of the seven hills — six syenite domes that still rise above the plain, and one, Markovo tepe, carried away by quarries in modern times.

Hills today
6
Lost hill
Markovo tepe
Roman name
Trimontium

Domes of syenite

The hills are of syenite — an igneous rock — rising to about 250 m. The Romans called the city Trimontium, “the three hills,” after Nebet, Dzhambaz and Taksim tepe.

Source trail: Wikipedia — Plovdiv ↗

The seventh hill

Six hills survive today — the Three Hills (Nebet, Dzhambaz, Taksim), Sahat tepe (Danov Hill), Dzhendem tepe (Youth Hill) and Bunardzhik (Hill of the Liberators). The seventh, Markovo tepe, was quarried away for building stone in the early 20th century.

Source trail: Wikipedia — Plovdiv ↗

City of the seven hills

The hills give Plovdiv its nickname and its skyline — each crowned by chapels, monuments or parks and offering views over the city and the Rhodopes.

Source trail: Wikipedia — Plovdiv ↗
Today and what to notice

Current status

Publicly documented historic site; detailed visiting status still needs verification.

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Public Wikidata record

Type
architectural landmark
Wikidata record ↗

Traces and evidence

Current status

Publicly documented historic site; detailed visiting status still needs verification.

Ownership, care and institutions

The institutional context runs through Plovdiv Municipality, Regional History Museum — Plovdiv and Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. That is not automatically an ownership history; it is a verifiable trail of public care, memory or governance.

  • Plovdiv Municipality
  • Regional History Museum — Plovdiv
  • Plovdiv 2019 Foundation

Connected people

No people are linked in the current knowledge base.

Visit and orientation

Coordinates
42.13696, 24.73168 · wikidata_coordinate
Built/date
Across all eras
Architect/builder
not applicable for a natural hill or terrain feature
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Full event stream

All 8 linked events are grouped by record type.

historical_timeline 7 records

  1. Early Neolithic settlements

    The first prehistoric settlements in the area of present-day Plovdiv appeared in the Neolithic period, more than 8,000 years ago. Yasa Tepe, in today’s Lauta district, is among the best-studied settlement mounds.

  2. Nebet Tepe’s long settlement sequence

    Municipal visitor sources place the earliest traces at Nebet Tepe between the Neolithic 6th millennium BC and the 4th millennium BC. Its layers show a settlement sequence spanning millennia, rather than one uncontested founding date.

  3. The Bronze Age and early necropolises

    Through the Bronze Age the hilltop settlement endured and burials appeared around it. Necropolises near Plovdiv have been dated to the 2nd–3rd millennium BC, marking the long transition toward the later Thracian town.

  4. The Thracian town of Eumolpia

    The municipality’s historical overview describes the fortified Thracian settlement on the Three Hills as Eumolpia or Eumolpeida. With the rise of the Odrysian kingdom in the 5th century BC, the settlement and its surroundings entered its political orbit.

  5. Destroyed by the Celts

    During the Celtic settlement of Eastern Europe the city was destroyed, most likely in the 270s BC, before life on the hills recovered once more.

  6. Philip V of Macedon takes the city

    In 183 BC Philip V of Macedon captured the city, but the Thracians re-conquered it shortly afterwards — one of several times the hill town changed hands in this period.

  7. Trimontium joins the Roman Empire

    Under Emperor Claudius the city was incorporated into the Roman Empire and became the capital of the province of Thrace. The Romans called it Trimontium — "the three hills".

cultural_programme 1 records

  1. Scale of the European Month of Culture

    The Pod tepeto archive article describes Plovdiv as the first Bulgarian city to host the EU's major cultural programme. The programme opened on 28 May and ran until 1 August 1999; it cites about 5,000 artists, including 3,000 Bulgarian artists and 2,000 from 45 countries, about 250 events, including 80 music events, 45 theatre events and 45 exhibitions/art actions. It also notes repairs to the Drama Theatre, City House of Culture and Ancient Theatre.

Around this place

Connected places show that this site works as part of a wider urban system: Plovdiv, Nebet Tepe and Ancient Theatre.

No separate archive or then/now record is available for this place yet. The main image, coordinates and sources remain published.