The tomb of the Thracian king Seuthes III.

The tomb of the Thracian king Seuthes III is located on the hill "Golyamata Kosmatka", 1 km south of the town of Shipka and 12 km north of the town of Kazanlak. It was discovered in 2004.

The mound tomb was built in the second half of the 5th century BC. The golden crown of the ruler, a golden kylix (wine goblet), kneepads and helmet, appliqués for horse bridles, etc. were found, all of which are exhibited in the Kazanlak Historical Museum. Noteworthy is the quite detailed bronze head of the statue of Seuthes symbolically attached in front of the façade. It is an important evidence of the Orphic rituals of the Thracians.

The tomb consists of a corridor, an antechamber, a round chamber with a high dome and a rectangular chamber. The rectangular chamber was built like a sarcophagus from two monolithic blocks of stone, one of which weighs over 60 tonnes. All three rooms are built with rectangular stone blocks and covered with stone slabs. A double-leaf marble door closes the entrance to the round chamber. The upper parts of the door wings are decorated with the face of Dionysus - on the east wing he is the personification of the sun, on the west wing that of the earth and the night.

In the rectangular chamber are the ritual bier and the ritual table. They were covered with a fabric woven from gold threads, where the magnificent burial of the ruler was performed. The name of Seuthes is inscribed on the phial (sacrificial bowl), the jar and the helmet, which proves that at the beginning of the 3rd century BC, the famous Thracian ruler of the Odrysian kingdom Seuthes III was buried here. The capital of his kingdom was Seuthopolis (Bulgarian Севтополис) and is located about 10 km southwest of the tomb, on the bottom of Lake Koprinka. The head of the statue of Seuthes, which stood on a pedestal in the residence city of Seuthopolis, was buried in the tomb.

In the chamber were carefully arranged the ruler's personal belongings and gifts necessary for the afterlife. During the burial, the entrance to the round chamber and the antechamber were walled up, the king's horse was sacrificed, while the hallway was ritually set ablaze. The tomb is part of the "Valley of the Thracian Kings", which still includes the princely tomb of Kazanlak, as well as the tombs and temples discovered on the hills of Golyam Arsenalka, Shushmanets, Hervetsiya, Grifoni, Svetitsa and Ostrusha.

The guides of the Kazanlak Historical Museum offer tours in Bulgarian, English and German.