The territory of another Thracian people , the Getae, spread in the northeastern part of the present-day Bulgarian state. The remains of their capital, Helis, were discovered in the remarkable natural environment near the villages of Sveshtari and Sboryanovo. In immediate proximity there are more than 100 tumuli making up the royal necropolis of the ruler of Getae.The Sveshtari tomb, excavated in the early 1980s, is the masterpiece among all tombs discovered . That grandiose architectural construction was created in the first half of the 3rd century BC and was plundered then. That was the era of the historic campaigns of Alexander the Great. After his early death, his military commanders divided among themselves the enormous empire, whereby Thrace went to Lysimachos. Scholars have proven that the tomb was intended for the king of the Getae, Dromichaites, and his wife - Lysimachos’ daughter. The access to the three vaulted chambers of the tomb was through a corridor. The entrance is shaped with massive columns above which there is a slab decorated with stylised bull’s skulls: bucrania. All the chambers are built of perfectly hewn stone blocks. The central burial chamber contains the funerary beds of the royal couple. The walls are decorated with ten splendid sculptures of standing women with almost natural height. They are caryatids supporting the roof of the building with their hands. Their faces are strongly individualised and additionally coloured. A decorative facade resembling a temple with exquisite columns, capitals and cornices, is built in front of the dynast’s funerary bed. A beautiful scene is painted above the caryatids, an invaluable masterpiece of Hellenistic art. The deceased ruler is depicted in it as hero-horseman heading to the world beyond. The goddess standing before him is offering him a gold wreath, and the four women behind her are bringing gifts to the hero-king. He is accompanied by two of his arms-bearers with spears and swords. In this way, the composition presents the actual moment of the heroization or deification of the deceased dynast. This is the end of a long process the origin of which was seen in the megalithic monuments from the Eastern Rhodope Mountains, created one millennium earlier.

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