Varna (population 314 539) is the biggest city at the Bulgarian Black-sea coast. It is a city over 110 kilometers long, its width, including the new residential quarters is nearly 9 kilometers. The city is like an amphitheatre and follows the curves of the Bay of Varna. It is surrounded by lots of gardens, vineyards and deciduous groves. Almost the whole territory is occupied with private country-houses and their small farms. The city is a regional administrative center. Terminal station on the railway lines Sofia-Varna and Rouse-Varna, a sea port, an international airport, second in traffic after Sofia.
Varna was an inhabited place even before the Greeks established the colony of Odessos there about 580 B.C. Later, under the Romans and their successors, the Slavs, Varna became a major port trading with Constantinople, Venice and Dubrovnik. In 1393 it was captured by the Turks, who made it an important military centre.