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The Madara Rider or Madara Horseman (, Madarski konnik) is a large early medieval rock relief carved on the Madara Plateau east of Shumen in northeastern Bulgaria, near the village of Madara. The monument is dated to the very late 7th or more often the very early 8th century, during the reign of the Bulgars Khan Tervel. In 1979, the monument was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The relief probably incorporates elements of both autochthonous Thracians and the newly arrived Bulgars' particular cults. The monumental size and iconography, and many of the specific details (stirrup, halo, skull-cup, bird, etc.) are generally part of Bulgar tradition, while the rightward direction and the lion are more typical of Thracian tradition.
Some early researchers have considered it an example of the Thracian horseman – a recurring motif of a deity in the form of a horseman in the Paleo-Balkanic mythology. The motif typically features a caped horseman astride a steed, with a spear poised in his right hand. He is often depicted as slaying a beast with a spear, although this feature is sometime absent. Initially considered (and later abandoned) by Konstantin Josef Jireček and Karel Škorpil, this assumption was gradually rejected because of differences in the iconographic details, and the relation with the animals (there's no dog).
Many scholars connect the origin of the relief with the ethnogenesis of the Bulgars, a Eurasian nomads culture from the Eurasian Steppe. Others have seen in the relief a resemblance to the Sasanian Empire rock relief tradition. The hero-horseman is a common character of Turkic peoples and Alans mythology. It is sometimes considered that the horseman represents or is related to the Bulgar deity Tengri, while Vladimir Toporov related it to the Iranian deity Mithra.
Still others have noted a simpler explanation: that the relief was intended to represent Khan Tervel (701–718 AD), or, once considered likely but now usually rejected, Khan Krum (802–814 AD).
The complex is commonly dated to the second quarter of the ninth century, as the 1970s excavations dated the pottery between the 8th and the 10th centuries. Some argue that the earliest buildings were founded after the conversion to Christianity. Thus the pagan temple (i.e. church) and the building would have been built on an early Byzantine basilica. To the west of the building was found evidence of a Christian burial, with a golden decorated belt, dated c. 900 AD.
Later in the 20th century, two miles (c. 3.2 km) northeast from the relief was found another group of buildings consisting of a 5th–6th century basilica with inner rectangular structure, which some have interpreted as the pagan temple (though without clear evidence).
Inscription I:
Justinian II the emperor made a treaty ... the Bulgars ... and came to Tervel. My Kuber at Thessaloniki did not trust the emperor with the cut-off nose and went back to the Kisiniie ... one of his ... The ruler Tervel made a treaty and gave to the emperor five thousand ... with my help the emperor scored a fine victory.
Inscription II:
... gold. He gave eighteen ... gold the ruler ... soldiers ... a ruler ... the Greeks (Byzantines) ... what I gave to you, I will give you every year, and the emperor sent to the ruler ... and asked the ruler Krumesis ... the ruler ... divided the gold ... began ... he gave from ... the ruler Krumesis gave ... that sea ... you did ... the ruler ... war they tore the treaties ... war ... then ... name ...
Inscription III:
... he was raised ... tore and Omurtag the ruler set by god sent ... help to me ...
Inscription IV:
Kanasubigi Omurtag, ruler from god ... was ... and made sacrifice to god Tangra ... Ichirgu-boil ... gold ...
A June 29, 2008, official survey on the design of Bulgaria's future euro coins was won by the Madara Horseman with 25.44 percent of the votes.
Madara Peak on Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica is named after the historic site of Madara.
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