I thought that the Pomaks had an ancient way of life, but there was a lot of history to be had in Thrace. There were of course some remnants of Ancient Greece, like this amphitheatre in the coastal region of Maronia.

But the Ancient Greeks weren’t the first to live in the region. Oh no, human history in this area went way back to the stone age. These first peoples weren’t Greeks but Thracians who came before them. Like in Stonehenge, these people worked with stone. We didn’t see any stone circles as such, but one look at the landscape would tell you why the ancient Thracians found Maronia so special.

It looked as if a giant had just trampled through a mountain and tossed around a few boulders.

It also had olive groves that seemed to have been planted by the Ancient Greeks themselves.

We didn’t see another soul while we were there. Unfortunately some locals had started grazing their cattle there – a big shame since it meant that the area would be greatly damaged. But that’s the way it goes in Greece. If you know some one who knows some one and you can strike a deal between you all, then the rule book (if there was one in the first place) goes out the window.