History
The Rhodopes are inhabited from the Prehistoric age. There are many archaeological finds of ancient tools in some of the caves.
The first known people that inhabited the mountain are the Thracians. They built many temples, cities and fortresses. The most famous town in the area is the sacred city of Perperikon located 15 km northeast of Kardzhali. One of the most important Thracian temples was Tatul near the village of the same name. Additionally, there are archeological sites throughout the region related to the cult of Dionysus, such as the ancient Thracian city of Perperikon.
During the Middle Ages the mountain was part of the Bulgarian and Byzantine Empires and often changed hands between the two countries. There was a dense network of castles which guarded the trade routes and the strategic heights. The largest and most important castles include Lyutitsa, Ustra, Tsepina, Mezek, Asenova krepost and many others. Between 1371 and 1375 the Rhodopes fell under Ottoman occupation in the course of the Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars
During the 16th and 17th centuries the Ottoman authorities began a process of forcible Islamisation of the region to compensate for the losses against the Christian powers in the Mediterranean. As a result many Bulgarian adopted the Islam and those who refused were killed.date=June 2008 A large number of churches and monasteries were completely destroyed and reduced to ruins. The towns and the villages in the Western Rhodopes took active part in the April Uprising in 1876. When the uprising was crushed the Ottomans slaughtered around 5,000 people in Batak alone. Thousands more perished in Bratsigovo, Perushtitsa and other rebel villages which are also burnt and looted.
The northern Rhodopes were liberated in 1878 but remained in the autonomous state Eastern Rumelia until its unification with the Principality of Bulgaria. The other part of the Rhodopes was annexed as a result of the First Balkan War (1912–1913) but after the Second Balkan War (1913) and the First World War (1914–1918) the southern slopes of the mountain was occupied by Greece and the Bulgarian population of the area was forced to flee to Bulgaria.
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