BALKAN (the ancient Haemus), a mountain range that separates the waters of the Lower Danube from those that flow into the Archipelago; or, in the more extended application of the name, the whole mountain system from the Adriatic to the Euxine. The main chain has a mean elevation of 4000 or 5000 feet, and rises in various parts to a height of 7000 or 8000. Especially towards the east it breaks up into a number of parallel chains, and sends out various offshoots both south and north. Mount Scardus, the highest point of the Char-Dagh, attains to 9700 feet above the sea. The most of the rivers of the northern watershed find their way to the Black Sea, while those from the southern fall into the Mediterranean. The range is crossed by numerous defiles, most of which are left in a nearly impassable condition, though they might fn many cases be turned into serviceable routes. Communication is kept up between Vienna and Constantinople by the pass usually known as Trajan’s Gate. Others of importance are the Nadir-Derbent, the Karnabad, and the Basardshik-Sophia. The mountains are for the most part of granitic formation, and are said to contain a variety of valuable minerals, but are still imperfectly known, in spite of the labours of Pouqueville, Boué, Viquesnel, Grisebach, Hahn, Barth, <fcc. Kanitz, between 1870 and 1874, crossed the eastern part no fewer than seventeen times by different passes.

See Journey across Balkan by the Passes of Selimno and Pravadi, London, 1831; Jochinus’s “Journey,” 1847, in Joum. Boy. Geog∙ Soc., 1854; Nouvelles Annales des Voyages, 2d series, vol. x.; Petennann’s Mittheil., 1873-74.