Missing US Tourist Found Safe, Sound in Bulgaria's Rhodope Mountain

The ghost village of Chamla is located at 1850 m above sea level. Photo by evgenidinev.com

A 25-year-old American national, who went missing in Bulgaria’s Rhodope Mountain in July, has been found, the US Embassy in Sofia told Novinite.com (Sofia News Agency).

 

He has already left Bulgaria safe and sound, the Embassy said.

The authorities in the southern Bulgarian District of Smolyan were searching for the missing US tourist who went to visit an uninhabited local village.

The 25-year-old tourist is of African-American origin but his name has not been revealed.

Before disappearing, the US tourist had sent an email to his telling them he was going to the uninhabited village of Chamla near the village of Mugla in the Rhodope Mountains.

The village of Chamla is located 5 km away from Bulgaria’s border with Greece, close to the famous Trigrad Gorge.

It used to be the highest-located inhabited place in Bulgaria (1850 m above sea level). The last inhabitants of the ghost village left or died in the 1980s.

Around 2000 the place became known as a hippie commune called “Kralstvo Champla”, i.e. the Kingdom of Chamla. The walls of the houses in the ghost village are said to be covered in drawings.

The name "Kingdom of Chamla" was given to the village in 2002 by a foundation called "Destination Bulgaria" that was hoping to turn it into a place for writers and artists.

In 2004, a Frenchman named Olivie Luc spent a year living on his own in Chamla. A Spaniard named Oscar Corea did the same thing the following year.

In 2006-2007, the Bulgarian press reported that the village and the adjacent lands were bought by a company owned by the richest Bulgarian Vasil Bozhkov in order to turn it into a base for the development of rural tourism.

The road to Champla disappears at certain spots in the rough terrain. The village has no electricity and no water and sewerage system. The best way to access the village is to use a GPS device. The coordinates of the village are 41° 37' 19.04" N, 24° 27' 14.63" E.

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