In the rather uninteresting landscape of the Thracian plains artificial mounds are almost everywhere a conspicuous feature. These mounds have long attracted the attention of archaeologists, but, on the Turkish side of the frontier at least, few have been scientifically explored. In Eastern Rumelia, where considerably more has been done, excavation has shewn that a large proportion of the mounds are places of burial, others representing, like the Thessalian magoules, prehistoric settlements, and others again sites of ancient watch-towers or even of Turkish camps.

The neighbourhood of Kirk Kilisse, some thirty-five miles east of Adrianople, boasts its full share of these monuments. About half an hour south of the town is a group of three tumuli in a line running W.S.W. and E.N.E. All are said to have been excavated by the Russians during the campaigns of 1828 and 1878. The southernmost tomb of the group remains open, shewing the arrangement of the tomb-chamber and its approach.