The Balkan Name
I hear many tourists who say: I want to visit the Balkans. I want to go to the Balkans, or the Western Balkans. I understand everyone very well because in all searches you will find the name Balkan. But who is the truth?
The name “Balkans” was decided by a stupid German Geographer. The peninsula where we live in old sources of antiquity was called the Illyrian peninsula (Albania Today). In Ptolemy’s texts it gave a mountain range crossing the peninsula called the Chains of the World.
In the middle of the 18th century, a German geographer named Zeune was visiting this area. Among others, he is looking for a mountain range, which he cannot find. At the part where it goes towards Vardar there is a big mountain range and he asks a Turkish shepherd, what is the name of this area and the Turkish shepherd said: this area is called the Balkans.
Zeune, the German Geographer was convinced that this was the mountain range that crossed the peninsula that we should call the Balkans.
Balkan means honey and Blood in Turkish.
The Turkish shepherd who collected a lot of honey and killed a lot of wild animals from the mountain where he lived, jokingly gave this name to the German geographer, Bal-Kan. This mountain has a lot of honey and blood, the shepherd said and thats why we have this name.
“The Balkan” area includes several countries such as Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bonsia&Herezegovina, Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece and in this group there are also Bulgaria, Romania and even Moldova but the name Balkan is wrong because all these countries are not related to the research of a stupid geographer but the real name of this area is: South-Eastern Europe.