Traveler's Guide
East Macedonia & Thrace
Stone Wedding - village of Zimzelen
Numerous stone pyramids (known as Kardzhali pyramids), reminiscent of a wedding procession. The figures are extremely diverse in shape and size, the height is from 0.5 to over 10 metres. Underwater volcanic activity created the rock formations 35 million years ago. During Oligocene Period, current Eastern Rhodope was at the bottom of a sea.
Due to frequent volcanic explosions, thick layers of volcanic ash mixed with shore rocks containing various minerals which colored them white, yellow, pink and green. The sediment became thicker, and turned into tuffs, which gives the current look of "The Stone Wedding.”
The stones have inspired a number of legends, though. In one, a young handsome man fell in love with a girl from a neighboring village. Her father arranged a big wedding, and paid the dowry in gold coins. On the day of the wedding, the veiled bride rode on a mule at the front of a procession leading to Zimzelen, where the wedding was to take place. They took the girl from the neighboring village and went to Zimzelen.
Her father-in-law walked beside her, and the groom brought up the rear. Just before entering Zimzelen, a great wind blew aside the veil, revealing the girl’s great beauty. The father-in-law was speechless, and lusted after her. This angered the wind, who roared fiercely and turned the bride and her mule to stone. Still angry, the wind turned the entire wedding party, including the lustful old man, to stone. Only the groom was spared.
Paralyzed by horror and grief, he wept, and begged the wind for the same fate. The wind obliged, and a pool was formed by his tears.
In another version, the groom did not invite the grandmother who raised him to the wedding. She watched the procession from afar, hidden among the trees in the grove opposite. She knew the father-in-law’s intentions and asked Mother Nature to prevent this disaster and protect her grandson. Shortly thereafter, she also turned into stone, which is still silently present in the forest, as if to watch over the wedding procession.
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