This map is another dense addition to the series, and would be a 29 storey high building if it was built in reality. As is typical of the series, one starts off with a brief prehistoric interlude before being led into the main body of the map, or imaginary museum.Roman influence is covered to the left side of the map. Major elements of the map include the monastery at Rila and the statue of Sveta Sofia which replaced a more sedate statue of Lenin. Passageways are followed where one learns about the formation of Christianity in the region, the various battles, turning points and of course Ottoman influence in Bulgarian history.

Welcome to Bulgaria. 1:500 scale.

The rise and then the fall of the Bulgarian Communist Party features heavily in this map, and a huge focal point is the before and after depiction of one of the most famous buildings in the world built in the Brutalist style, the House-Monument of Buzludzha in central Bulgaria. In the map, two versions of the same space sit above the other, albeit one is ruined and the other is how it would have looked in 1981, when it opened.

The Buzludzha Monument, before (bottom) and after (top). 1:500 scale.

It was a challenge to draw because two of the heads (Karl Marx and Engels) are relatively unscathed so I had to draw two versions of the same head at a micro scale that matched up. Bulgaria is a fascinating country in that when I was born, a foreign tourist would have had to have been in a tour group to see major cities and forget a visit to Buzludzha. Fast forward to 2016 this 32 year old version of myself was exploring the ruined interior and taking in the heights of the tower. This once sealed off country which can now be reached via a budget airline is beautifully encapsulated below, with the last Communist ruler Tidor Zhikov shown in the same frame as a map of the European Union.

A portrait of Zhikov, a statue of Lenin and a map of the European Union. 1:500 scale.