Pliska

When Khan Asparukh's Bulgars founded their state south of the Danube in 681, they made Pliska its centre. The city was protected by an earthen rampart and ditch enclosing 23 square kilometres, with a stone-walled inner citadel and the khans' palace at its heart, a layout recalling the Bulgars' steppe camps.

In the 9th century Khan Omurtag built stone palaces and baths here. Under Boris, who adopted Christianity in 864, the Great Basilica, one of the largest churches in the Balkans, was raised at Pliska. In 893 the capital moved to Preslav.