The Pomorie Tomb-Mausoleum is our focus in Pomorie. This site is ancient (II-IV c.) and enigmatic. When people think of the Black Sea, they often picture summer, sunshine, and beautiful sandy beaches. It’s no wonder the Black Sea coast draws thousands of holidaymakers to Bulgaria from May through October.The modern town of Pomorie, once the ancient city of Anchialos, lies just 20 km from Burgas. If you have extra time, a visit to the local history museum can enrich your understanding of the area’s thousands of years of history.
But for those with a deeper interest in history and culture, the region offers much more. One of the most intriguing archaeological sites along the coast is the Pomorie tomb-mausoleum – a place shrouded in mystery and touched by myth. This Thracian monument offers a cosmic glimpse into the lives and spiritual beliefs of ancient peoples.
Thanks to modern navigation, it’s easy to find the site, officially known as the Pomorie Thracian Tumulus. A brief detour from the main road will bring you directly to this fascinating location.
Why Visit the Pomorie-Tomb- Mausoleum, a mystery with a mythical touch?
Set within what’s known as the “Hollow Mound,” the tomb stands out for its unique architecture and presumed ritual function. It’s believed to be part of a larger necropolis, which highlights the significance of this area in ancient times. The name Anchialos comes from the words anchi (near) and als (salt), hinting at its historic ties to salt mining. Salt as a resource so valuable in antiquity that even children today learn about its importance.
THE POMORIE TOMB-MAUSOLEUM – A MYSTERY WITH A MYTHICAL TOUCH
Most scholars believe the structure served as a mausoleum (heroon) for a wealthy Thracian family from Anchialos. It’s also thought to have been a site for religious rituals related to sun worship. This ancient domed tomb is the largest of its kind discovered in Bulgaria. It stands alone on the Balkan Peninsula as a unique blend of a traditional Thracian tomb and a Roman-style mausoleum.
The Pomorie Tomb-Mausoleum – What Meets the Eye
famed Treasury of Atreus in Mycenae. Its impressive scale and unique construction place it among the most remarkable monuments of the ancient world.
As Dr. Vassil Mutafov explains, the tomb was built using alternating layers of stone and standard Roman bricks, held together with mortar mixed with crushed brick. The facade is finely crafted, indicating that the tomb originally stood exposed before being covered by an 8-meter-high tumulus. A 22-meter-long corridor (dromos), topped with a half-cylindrical vault, leads visitors into the tomb’s interior.
The entrance to the dromos was never buried. It featured a double-leaf door designed for repeated use, secured from the inside. The structure’s materials reflect a blend of cultures: stonework typical of Thracian builders and bricks characteristic of Roman construction.
At the heart of the circular burial chamber—5.5 meters high and 11.56 meters in diameter—stands a hollow central column. The ring-shaped hall is covered by a torus-like vault that connects the central column to the surrounding wall. Inside the column, spiral stone stairs once led to the top of the tumulus. These stairs were later removed, and the passage was sealed. It is believed that the column extended above the mound and was once topped by a statue.
Around the inner wall of the chamber are five niches, likely used to hold urns of the deceased. The walls of the chamber, corridor, and side rooms were plastered with “hot mortar”. This is a mix of quicklime and sea sand—and painted, though only fragments of the original green-colored plaster have survived.
Architectural parallels to the Pomorie tomb can be found in Thracian and Bosporan tombs from the 4th–3rd centuries BC, as well as in sacred and royal buildings across the Mediterranean, such as the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus and structures in Commagene.
The Pomorie Tomb-Mausoleum, a Mystery with a Mythical Touch – What Lies Beyond Sight
The architecture of the Pomorie tomb-mausoleum is more than just remarkable engineering. It is a physical manifestation of ancient spiritual beliefs and cosmic symbolism.
According to Professor Alexander Foll, the priests of the time used the tomb as a sacred observatory. They interpreted the will of the god Sabazius—whom they identified with Apollo by day—by watching the sun’s rays as they penetrated the hollow column when the sun reached its zenith. At night, when the sun descended into the “lower hemisphere of the earth,” the priests lit a sacred fire on the altar. The flickering flames, shining through the column’s opening and reflected in the night sky, became a medium for divination. During these rituals, the god Sabazius was called Dionysus.
Many mysteries remain, known only to the initiates—those who tracked the sun’s rays during the vernal and summer equinoxes, when light gradually conquered darkness. The tomb’s flawless acoustics amplified the effects of autophony—a phenomenon used in rituals to bring the divine into oneself, in a state of spiritual ecstasy known as enthousiasmos.
Another symbol worth noting is the pentagram formed by the five niches inside the chamber. This sacred geometry was more than decorative—it reflected the ancient belief in universal harmony and cosmic order.
The Pomorie tomb–mausoleum invites us to revisit the sacred mysteries of the Thracians, the legend of Orpheus, and the Roman belief in the soul’s immortality. It is both an archaeological marvel and a gateway to the mythic and mystical world of the ancients.
