Pomorie

Pomorie (Поморие poˈmɔriɛ), historically known as Anchialos (Greek: Αγχίαλος), is a town and seaside resort in southeastern Bulgaria, located on a narrow rocky peninsula in Burgas Bay on the southern Bulgarian Black Sea Coast. It is situated in Burgas Province, 20,5 km away from the city of Burgas and 18 km from the Sunny Beach resort. The ultrasaline lagoon Lake Pomorie, the northernmost of the Burgas Lakes, lies in the immediate proximity. The town is the administrative centre of the eponymous Pomorie Municipality. Pomorie is an ancient city and today an important tourist destination. As of 2020, it has a population of 13,926 inhabitants. It lies at . Pomorie was founded by the Ancient Greeks under the name Anchialos (Ἀγχίαλος), deriving from Ancient Greek "anchi-" ("near, close to") and "als-" (either "salt" or a poetic and uncommon word for "sea"). In Latin, this was rendered as Anchialus. The Bulgars called the town Tuthom, though its more common name in Bulgarian was Анхиало, Anhialo based on the Greek name. During the Ottoman rule, the town was called Ahyolu. In 1934 the town was renamed to Pomorie, from the Bulgarian "po-" (in this context "by, next to") and "more" ("sea"), corresponding to one of the two etymologies of the original Greek name. Possibly founded in the 5th or 4th century BC as a colony of Apollonia (today Sozopol), Anchialos was mentioned in Strabo's Geographica as a small town. It was briefly captured by Messembria (Nesebar) in the 2nd century BC, but reconquered by Apollonia and its fortified walls destroyed. The western Black Sea coast was ultimately conquered by the Romans under Marcus Licinius Crassus in 29-28 BC after continuous campaigns in the area since 72-71. The fortified wall was meanwhile rebuilt, as evidenced by Ovid in 9 AD en route to Tomis. In the early 1st century AD Anchialos was the centre of a strategia of the vassal Odrysian kingdom, and the town had a Thracian population in the 6th century AD according to the early Byzantine historian Procopius.