Atia, Bulgaria

Atia Атия
Village
Atia Location of Atia
Coordinates: 42°26′20″N 27°35′5″E
Country	Bulgaria
Province	Burgas Province
Municipality	Sozopol
Elevation	14 m (46 ft)
Population  (2013)[1]
• Total	825
Time zone	UTC+2 (EET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+3 (EEST)

Atia (Bulgarian: Атия) is a village in Sozopol Municipality, Burgas Province, south-eastern Bulgaria. As of 2013 it has 825 inhabitants.[1] It hosts Bulgaria's largest naval base.

The village is located near Cape Atia, thus its name. It is situated at the northern foothills of Medni Rid Ridge, which is the north-eastern extreme of the Bosna Ridge in the Strandzha Mountains.[2]

Environmental problems

Until 2001 copper mines functioned in the vicinity of the village. Between 1954 and 1977 all the by-products and waste from the mining operations were dumped in the shallow waters near the Black Sea coast. As a result the village's beach was contaminated with mercury and radioactive elements which give the sand a distinctive dark color. Decontamination operations began in 1997 after it was determined that the background radiation in the area is twice the normal limit.[3]

Citations

1. "Atia". Guide Bulgaria. Retrieved 28 July 2018.
2. Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria 1980, p. 311
3. "ИАОС". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-24.

References

• Мичев (Michev), Николай (Nikolay); Михайлов (Mihaylov), Цветко (Tsvetko); Вапцаров (Vaptsarov), Иван (Ivan); Кираджиев (Kiradzhiev), Светлин (Svetlin) (1980). Географски речник на България [Geographic Dictionary of Bulgaria] (in Bulgarian). София (Sofia): Наука и култура (Nauka i kultura).