{"id":203,"date":"2007-11-26T21:54:40","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T11:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/?p=203"},"modified":"2007-11-26T21:54:40","modified_gmt":"2007-11-26T11:54:40","slug":"around-the-central-baths-sofia-bulgaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/around-the-central-baths-sofia-bulgaria","title":{"rendered":"Around the Central Baths &#8211; Sofia, Bulgaria"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"float: right\"><script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"pub-1009507070974015\";\r\ngoogle_alternate_ad_url = \"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/google_adsense_script.html\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\ngoogle_ad_format = \"300x250_as\";\r\ngoogle_ad_type = \"text_image\";\r\n\/\/2007-06-30: TSBlog 300x250\r\ngoogle_ad_channel = \"2928184950\";\r\ngoogle_color_border = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_bg = \"FFFFFF\";\r\ngoogle_color_link = \"FF6600\";\r\ngoogle_color_text = \"000000\";\r\ngoogle_color_url = \"339933\";\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\n  src=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Behind the TZUM shopping mall, at the start of Maria Luisa Boulevard\u00a0is the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/IMG_7921.jpg.html\" title=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\">Banya Bashi Mosque<\/a>, one of the oldest mosques in Europe. It was built in 1576 by the <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"right\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/28098-2\/IMG_7921.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\" \/>same famous Turkish architect, Hadji Mimar Sonah, who\u00a0built the Sultan Selim mosque in the town of Edrine in Turkey.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/v\/Bulgaria\/Sofia\/IMG_7919.jpg.html\" title=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\">Banya Bashi Mosque <\/a>was completed in 1576, during the reign of the Ottomans. The Mosque derives its name <img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" vspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" width=\"110\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.travelsignposts.com\/Destination\/d\/28096-2\/IMG_7920.jpg?resize=110%2C85\" hspace=\"3\" alt=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\" height=\"85\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 85px\" title=\"Banya Bashi Mosque - Sofia, Bulgaria\" \/>from the phrase <em>Banya Bashi<\/em>, which means <em>many baths<\/em>.\u00a0 The most unusual feature of the Mosque is that it was actually built over natural thermal spas and hence it seems that steam rises\u00a0from the vents in the ground near the Mosque walls. Whilst we did not take time to check this out, we certainly caught whiffs of a strange smell, which must be the sulphur from the spring.\u00a0 The Mosque is famous for its large dome and the minaret rising upward to the\u00a0 sky.<\/p>\n<p>The Banya Bashi Mosque is the only functioning mosque in Sofia.\u00a0 A remnant of the Ottoman rule of Bulgaria that lasted nearly five centuries, it is still in use by Sofia&#8217;s\u00a0 Muslim community.<\/p>\n<p>At the far end of the Central Baths, there was a thriving honey market in action.\u00a0 There were numerous stalls selling all types of honey and honey products and the stallholders are keen for you to try their products, in the hope that you&#8217;ll buy some.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Apparently a key element for successful honey production\u00a0is that the production area\u00a0needs to have a variety of plants.\u00a0 Although small in size, Bulgaria\u00a0is one of the most suitable places for apiculture due to its rich flora and temperate climate.\u00a0\u00a0I tasted the\u00a0Acacia bee honey, but not being an aficionado, I couldn&#8217;t say that I could tell the difference between this and the sunflower bee and lime-tree honeys.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Helen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Behind the TZUM shopping mall, at the start of Maria Luisa Boulevard\u00a0is the Banya Bashi Mosque, one of the oldest mosques in Europe. It was built in 1576 by the same famous Turkish architect, Hadji Mimar Sonah, who\u00a0built the Sultan Selim mosque in the town of Edrine in Turkey. Banya Bashi Mosque was completed in [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-things-to-see-in-sofia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Around the Central Baths - Sofia, Bulgaria - Travel Signposts Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/around-the-central-baths-sofia-bulgaria\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Helen Page\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/around-the-central-baths-sofia-bulgaria\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/www.travelsignposts.com\/wordpress\/bulgaria\/things-to-see-in-sofia\/around-the-central-baths-sofia-bulgaria\",\"name\":\"Around the Central Baths - 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