Shabla is a town and seaside resort

Seaside resort

A seaside resort is a resort, or resort town, located on the coast. Where a beach is the primary focus for tourists, it may be called a beach resort.- Overview :...

 in northeastern Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

, administrative centre of the homonymous municipality part of Dobrich Province

Dobrich Province

Dobrich Province is a province in northeastern Bulgaria, part of Southern Dobruja geographical region. It is divided into 8 municipalities with a total population, as of December 2009, of 199,705 inhabitants.-Municipalities:...

. As of December 2009, the town has a population of 3,586 inhabitants. It is situated on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

Bulgarian Black Sea Coast

The Bulgarian Black Sea Coast covers the entire eastern bound of Bulgaria stretching from the Romanian Black Sea resorts in the north to European Turkey in the south, along 378 km of coastline. White and golden sandy beaches occupy approximately 130 km of the 378 km long coast...

 in the vicinity of the salt-water Lake Shabla

Lake Shabla

Lake Shabla is a lagoon in the north-eastern Bulgaria, which separated from the Black Sea by the sandbar. The area of the water body is 0.8 km2, depth 0.4-4 m, salinity 0,4%. The lagoon is located on 3 km east from the town of Shabla.- Links :*...

 and Bulgaria's easternmost point, Cape Shabla.

Shabla has an extensive white sand beach and was a popular destination for Eastern Bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

 tourism until the fall of Communism. The beach itself is located some 5 km from the town (shuttle service in summer) via a road constructed under the EU Phare programme

On the main town beach there is a large car park and many old bungalows next to a large restaurant that serves today's tourists in the summer months.

Another route leads you to the coastal road and past Shabla's lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

 which is the tallest, oldest and easternmost one on the Bulgarian coast. Set among the ruins of the 4th-century fortress, it was built in its modern appearance during the Crimean War

Crimean War

The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...

 and opened on 15 July 1856, though it is in fact a reconstructed older lighthouse built between 1756 and 1786. Its tower is 28.23 m-tall.

The next village along this route and moving South is Tyulenovo

Tyulenovo

Tyulenovo is a village and seaside resort on the north Bulgarian Black Sea Coast, part of Shabla Municipality, Dobrich Province. "Tyulen" means seal in Bulgarian, but seals hadn't been seen in the area since the 1980s...

 and the start of the rocky coast and high cliffs that stretch through Kamen Bryag to the small bay of Kavarna.

Shabla in antiquity was an ancient Thracian

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

 settlement founded 6th-5th century BC and known by the Greek name of Karon Limen (Carian Bay) that grew into a Black Sea

Black Sea

The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...

 port in Roman

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....

 times. The town flourished in the early years of the Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

, a fortress still being preserved from the period (4th century). During Ottoman

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 rule it was known as Karamanly

Honour

Shabla Knoll

Shabla Knoll

Shabla Knoll rises to over in Delchev Ridge, Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica surmounting Sopot Ice Piedmont to the north and Pautalia Glacier to the southwest....

 on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands

South Shetland Islands

The South Shetland Islands are a group of Antarctic islands, lying about north of the Antarctic Peninsula, with a total area of . By the Antarctic Treaty of 1959, the Islands' sovereignty is neither recognized nor disputed by the signatories and they are free for use by any signatory for...

, Antarctica is named after Shabla.