Sofia Mountains
The Sofia Mountains are a cluster of three small mountains in north-western Alexander Island in the British Antarctic Territory. This little range is eight and a half miles long, extending in a north-south direction and three and a half miles wide. They rise to 4,920 feet at the summit of Mount Ohridsky.
The Sofia Mountains are to be found to the south-southeast of the Havre Mountains, south-west of Rouen Mountains, north-west of the Elgar Uplands, east of the northern part of Lassus Mountains, and four miles inland from Lazarev Bay. They are bounded by the Palestrina Glacier to the north, by the five mile long, ice-filled Poste Valley to the east, by Nichols Snowfield to the southeast, and by the McManus Glacier to the west.
The mountains include:
- Balan Ridge to the northeast;
- Mount Braun to the northwest, and
- Mount Ohridsky to the south
The Yozola Glacier flows northwards in between Balan and Braun to join the Palestrina Glacier.
The mountains were seen from the air and roughly mapped by the 1936-37 British Graham Land Expedition with more detailed British mapping in 1960 from air photos taken by the 1947-48 Americn Expedition under Ronne.
Name
The Sofia Mountains are otherwise known as the 'Sofia University Mountains'. The name was given in commemoration of the centennial of Sofia University in Bulgaria, and of the first Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition organized on that occasion in 1988. In February 1988, a field party including two members of the British Antarctic Survey, geologist Philip Nell and mountain guide Peter Marquis, and two Bulgarian geologists, Christo Pimpirev and Borislav Kamenov, visited the Rouen Mountains and Elgar Uplands.
The highest mountain of the group, Mount Ohridsky, is known to the Bulgarians as 'Mount Kliment Ohridski' after Clement of Ohrid, the patron saint of the University.
Location
- Location map: 69°25’60"S, 71°23’20"W
References
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Sofia Mountains
