Location

Pazardzhik Region is situated in the central part of Southern Bulgaria and borders on Sofia, Blagoevgrad, Smolyan and Plovdiv regions. It lies on 4457.0 sq.km which is 4 % of the country's total territory. More than a half of this territory (57.1%) represents forest area, 35.6 % is agricultural land, 3.3% are urban territories, 2.6% are rivers and water areas, 0.6% is road infrastructure and 0.4% are occupied by quarries and mines.

Transport and Infrastructure

Part of the Asia-European transport corridor, connecting Western Europe with the Near East and Middle Asia runs through the Region as the Thrakia International motorway, a section of the European route E-80. Roads of the Republican road network connect the region of Pazardzhik with other regions in Southern Bulgaria. The main railroad is the International railway CE-70, linking Central Europe to Asia  a part of the route of the Orient Express.

Population

Latest (2005) census data indicate the total number of population in the Pazardzhik region is 298 937 people, 146269 of them men and 151512 women. Pazardzhik Region ranks eighth among the rest 28 regions (3.8 % of the country population). The Density of Population is 68.9 p/km2 at a c ountry's average of 73.9 p/km2. The density of population varies between 199 p/km2 in the municipality of Pazardzhik, down to 10. 5 p/km2 in the municipality of Batak. The largest part of it is concentrated in large municipality centers  57.9%.

Geographical facts

Municipality of Pazardjik is situated in South Bulgaria, in the central part of the Higher Thrace valley, on the north of the Rhodope mountain, at the two banks of river Maritsa. The municipality borders on seven municipalities of district Pazardjik, including: municipality Strelcha, Panagyurishte, Lesichevo, Septemvri, Rakitovo, Peshtera and Bratsigovo; also on four municipalities from Plovdiv district - Saedinenie, Stamboliyski, Maritsa, Rhodopi.

• Climate

Municipality of Pazardjik is of propitious transitive-continental climate, characterized with summer droughts. This climate is transitive, between continental climate of Danube plain and transitive Mediterranean climate in southeastern part of Bulgaria.
The temperatures under zero in Thrace valley are characteristic for the most typical winter month - January. Because of the protection of Stara planina and the influence of the Mediterranean Sea, the average January temperature in Pazardjik is below zero.

• Water resources

The municipality is abundant with water resources. Main catchment basin is the river Maritsa and its bigger feeders are the rivers Topolnitsa and Luda Yana.
An important source of water is subsoil and underground. They are results of the rainfall and disposed in some strata of the water-carrying horizon.

• Minerals, Ores, Minerals

On the territory of the Municipality, there are formations of non-metalliferous minerals. Most spreading minerals, ores and minerals are the dolomites. They can be found on the northern mountainsides of Rhodopa - between the villages Patalenitsa and Tsrancha, south and east from village Debrashtitsa. The biggest is the spreading of marmors in the hills of Besapara. At their foot near the village Ognyanovo can be found good exploited formation of limestone. Here is mining and producing the whole range of inert materials on the base of crushed stone (stone flour, broken stone), caustic and hydrated lime and ashy. In the territory of village Velichkovo are mining rock - facing materials. Some of them are not very well explored and worked out formations from granite, scanite and gabro.
Plenty of the ledges are from inert materials - river sand and felt, which are not very well explored and are not in exploitation.

Tourism and recreation

Nature has been generous with the people from Pazardzhik Region. They have been gifted with the most beautiful recesses of Bulgaria - the Rila Mountain, the Rhodopes, Sredna Gora, the Thracian Valley. Each one of them holds its own unique fascination.
The Regional Relief is various: low-lying (the Pazardzhik-Plovdiv field, comprising the west of the Upper Thracian Valley) and mountainous (parts of the Ihtiman and Downright Sredna Gora, the West Rhodopes and the Rila mountain). The highest point is the Slavov peak with its altitude of 2306 meters, and the lowest point in the region is in the Pazardzhik field with an altitude of 200 meters. The Climate is Trans-continental in the flat areas and mountainous in the eastern slopes of the Rila mountain and the high uplands of the Rhodopes. In the flat areas spring comes earlier, and in the mountainous ones autumn sets in earlier. Winter half-year is characterized by a climate milder than the one in the North Bulgaria. The average annual temperature is 11.3oC.

Sources: Official website of Pazardzhik region, Bulgaria.domino.bg