Dorkovo Museum
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  Location within Bulgaria | |
| Established | September 2013 |
|---|---|
| Location | Dorkovo, Pazardzhik District, Bulgaria[1] |
| Coordinates | 42°01′59″N 24°07′59″E / 42.033°N 24.133°E |
| Type | Paleontology museum of Pliocene epoch |
| Collection size | Fossils of animals, model of gomphothere, and diorama |
Dorkovo Museum in Dorkovo, Bulgaria, established in 2013 in a domed wooden structure, has a display of fossils collected from the Pliocene geological epoch of about five million years ago around the village of Dorkovo, a life-size model of a gomphothere, related to elephants, and a diorama.[1][2][3]
During 1983 a team of paleontologists from Bulgaria and France carried out excavations in and around Dorkovo in the Rhodope Mountains which unearthed fossils of 5-million-year-old prehistoric mammals of the Pliocene geological epoch.[1] The study was supported by the National Museum of Natural History. The museum was created only 30 years later at the site by the National Museum of Natural History, artists and those associated with the excavations at Dorkovo to display the fossils, a gomphothere model and other animal sculptures, and a diorama based on the Pliocene animals and forest.[2][3] Funding for the museum was provided under the regional development of the European Union (EU).[3]
The museum was inaugurated on 19 September 2013 by Rosen Plevneliev, President of Bulgaria. It is located 150 kilometres (93 mi) from Sofia in the village of Dorkovo, Rakitovo Municipality between the town of Velingrad and the Batak Reservoir, in the Pazardzhik region.[1][3]
