Osogovo Mountain

Osogovo (Bulgarian
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except the Macedonian language, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite...and Macedonian
Macedonian language
Macedonian is the official language of Republic of Macedonia and is a part of the Eastern group of South Slavic languages. Macedonian is closely related to and shares a high degree of mutual intelligibility with the Bulgarian language and to a certain extent with Serbian and Croatian...
Cyrillic: ) or Osogovska Planina (Осоговска планина or Осоговска Планина) is a mountain and ski resort between southwestern Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
(Kyustendil Province
Kyustendil Province
Kyustendil Province is a province in southwestern Bulgaria, extending over an area of 3084.3 km² , and has a population of 163,889... and northeastern Republic of Macedonia
Republic of Macedonia
Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
(Kočani
Kocani
Kočani is a town away from Skopje, situated in the Eastern part of the Republic of Macedonia, with population of 28 330. The town of Kočani is the seat of Kočani Municipality.-Geography and population:...
and Kriva Palanka
Kriva Palanka
Kriva Palanka is a town located in the northeastern part of the Republic of Macedonia. It has nearly 21,000 inhabitants. The town of Kriva Palanka is the seat of Kriva Palanka Municipality....
municipallities). It is about 110 km long and 50 km wide, the highest peak being Ruen
Ruen
Ruen is a village in southeastern Bulgaria, part of Burgas Province. It is the administrative centre of Ruen municipality, which lies in the northern part of Burgas Province.-Municipality:Ruen municipality includes the following 41 places:...
(Руен) at 2251 m, which constitutes the main orthographic knot on the very border between Bulgaria and the Republic of Macedonia. The steepest slope of the mountain is in the west, stretching down from Carev Vrv (Царев Врв; "Tsar's Peak").
Osogovo is the northernmost and highest part of the Osogovo-Belasica
Belasica
Belasica is a mountain range in the region of Macedonia in Southeastern Europe, shared by northwestern Greece , southeastern Republic of Macedonia and southwestern Bulgaria...
group and is situated between the Kyustendil
Kyustendil
Kyustendil is a town in the far west of Bulgaria, the capital of Kyustendil Province, with a population of 58,059 . Kyustendil is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, 90 km southwest of Sofia...
and Kamenitsa Valleys, Dobro pole and the Bregalnica and Kriva Reka
river valleys. The west slopes are steep and the southeast ones are slant, the mountain being rich in polymetal ore
Ore
An ore is a type of rock that contains minerals such as gemstones or metals that can be extracted through mining and refined for use. Samples of ore in the form of exceptionally beautiful crystals, exotic layering visible when sectioned or polished or metallic presentations such as large nuggets or..s.
There are many legends about the origin of name Osogovo, but the most famous one is that it was given by the Saxon
Saxons
The Saxons were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are considered ethnic Germans ; those in the eastern Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; those in north.. miners who were mining gold and silver in the region in the past. According to this legend, the name originates from the Old Germanic words "osso" (god) and "gov" (place) which means "a divine place".
The mountain itself is a powerful granite massif of crystal rocks. It has a prominent volcanic relief made of conic peaks and volcanic tufa.
The flora distinguishes vertical coverage: an under-mountainous zone up to 1000 m where trees like oak, elm, hornbeam, ash, hazel and others can be found; a mountainous zone (1000-1800 m) covered mostly with beech trees; and a sub-alpine zone covered with grass pastures and bushes of juniper trees. The mountain rivers and streams are a natural habitat for the barbell, the chub and the mountain trout.
Deciduous
Deciduous
Deciduous means falling off at maturity or tending to fall off and is typically used in reference to trees or shrubs that lose their leaves seasonally and to the shedding of other plant structures such as petals after flowering or fruit when ripe...and coniferous forests dominate. The area is inhabited by the rare Alpine Newt
. The nature and climate conditions allow for all-year tourism. Important towns at the foot of Osogovo are Kyustendil to the northeast in Bulgaria and Kočani and Kriva Palanka to the west and southwest in the Republic of Macedonia.