The town of Malko Tarnovo is situated 80 km. south of Burgas, 58 km. southwest of Tsarevo, 470 km. southeast of Sofia and 5 km. away from the border of Bulgaria with Turkey.
   The town is at 340 m. altitude and its population is 3 727. It is the only town on the territory of Strandzha Mountain. It succeeded a settlement, which was established in IV-III B.C.
   Malko Tarnovo is situated within the outlines of Strandzha Natural Park, which is the largest protected territory in the country.
   On the territory of Malko Tarnovo municipality, there are unique monuments of spiritual and material culture with national recognition.
   Here cultural layers of Bronze and Eneolothic Ages alternate, almost without any break in between, with the cultural traces of Thracian megalithic culture, the Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Bulgarian Enlightenment and reach out to the most modern times of our history.
   A peculiar focus in the spiritual culture of Strandzha region is the original ritual and religious system which is remarkable for the mutual infiltration of Christian and pagan customs.
   This region is the only one famous for the so-called nestinarstvo/ dancing on live coals /which is one of the most ancient pagan rituals on the Balkans and lays a bridge between the past and the future, thus revealing a slight fragment of the cultural heritage of our nation.
   This in itself is a unique and almost unknown custom, although it used to exist in the very center of Europe centuries on end. This phenomenon is still mysterious and unrevealed - posing lots of questions without an answer.
   The native citizens continue the art of dancing barefoot on glowing coals in a state similar to trance in the tradition of their ancestors thousands of years ago.
   The dancing on glowing coals performance starts at sunset when the main nestinar /a male dancer/, who wears a white shirt and a red waist-belt, scatters coals in a circle at the village square.
   The nestinars start dancing around, holding icons in their hands and all of a sudden they come inside onto the glowing coals. Sometimes their feet hardly touch the ground, at other times they firmly press the coals with circular movements until they put them out.
   One can trace the history of nestinarstvo tradition back to the Thracians - the ancient inhabitants of Bulgaria who paid their respect to the Sun as their God and believed in immortality.
   The nestinars in Bulgaria, however, insist that they have inherited this ritual from their ancestors as a truly Christian duty which, if observed, would bring the believers health and rich harvests and, if not respected, would bring their community a period of ailments and poverty.
   Almost every church in the region is an architectural and artistic monument of culture. The churches in Malko Tarnovo and the villages of Zabernovo, Kalovo and Brashlyan are of significant value.
   There are four reserves on the territory of the municipality, one of which, Uzunbodzhak, is a recognized biosphere reserve and the other one, Silkosiya, is the first official reserve in the country.
   Except the above-mentioned reserves in the municipality there are 12 natural formations of great interest and 7 protected areas.
   The border location of the municipality and that of the whole natural park, i.e. between two continents, adds to its unique variety of species in Europe as well as distinguish it for its cultural and historic importance.
   One of the most significant historic monuments in the municipality is the one in Petrova Niva /meadow/ area where in 1903 a decision of historic importance, the so-called Ilindensko-Preobrazhensko uprising in eastern Thracia and Strandzhda regions, was raised.
   In Malko Tarnovo and its outskirts there are a great number of extremely significant archeological finds reminding of the Thracians. According to a number of famous researchers, at this place in the remote past there used to be a settlement, which could be traced back by the finds of different epochs.
   The two Thracian beehive tombs in the vicinity of the town are of great interest for the visitors. Built with the precisely crafted marble blocks and representing tomb urns for the nobility, they are a work art of the Thracian monumental architecture dating back to 5th – 3rd century B.C.
   The whole region around Malko Tarnovo is abundant in dolmens, necropolis, tombs and ancient sanctuaries, which are worth seeing.