Bulgaria is located in Eastern Europe and is bordered by the River Danube and Romania to the north, by Turkey and Greece to the south, by the Black Sea to the east and by Serbia and Montenegro and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the west. The country is traversed by the Balkan Mountains, which extend to the shores of the Black Sea and its golden beaches.

Despite a tumultuous history, Bulgaria is the oldest existing state in Europe to have held on to its original name (since 681 AD) and the majority of the population can trace their ancestors to the Bulgar incursion of the south Danube around that period.