On November 11th, when the Christian church celebrated St. Mina, the residents of the village of Mechkul, Simitli municipality, also worship the saint’s memory. They celebrate the feast of the stone sanctuary dedicated to St. Mina near the village, preparing and distributing a kurban for health. The rock formations that form the sanctuary are likened to the lark, lion’s head, eel and even the footstep of Krali Marko.
The archaeological excavations in the area have argued over 7,000 years before Christ. The region is inhabited by the Thracian tribe medi. According to the locals, there was a sanctuary, and his priestess precisely here predicted to Alexander the Macedonian that he would conquer the world. According to another tradition, the stones are ordered in this order of titans by order of Zeus himself.
Near the sanctuary, the locals have built a chapel of St. Mina, who is the patron of the Christian family. It is they who continue to celebrate the place where different deities and religions have been celebrated for thousands of years.
