Central Balkan National Park

Central Balkan National Park lies in the heart of Bulgaria, in the central and higher portions of the Balkan Mountains, with elevation ranging from 550 meters near the town of Karlovo to 2,376 meters at Botev Peak, the highest summit in the range. It was established on 31 October 1991 and is the third largest protected territory in Bulgaria, covering 716.69 square kilometers across parts of five provinces: Lovech, Gabrovo, Sofia, Plovdiv and Stara Zagora. The park includes nine nature reserves covering 28 percent of its territory, among them Boatin, Tsarichina, Kozya Stena and Steneto, and is classified IUCN Category 2. It is included on the UN list of Representative Protected Areas, four of its reserves are part of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves under the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme, and since 2017 the ancient beech forests within all nine reserves have been part of the Primeval Beech Forests World Heritage Site. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/