Belasica
Belasica
a mountain range on the border of Bulgaria, Greece, and Yugoslavia.
The troops of the Byzantine emperor Basil II dealt a heavy defeat to Bulgarian troops on July 29, 1014, on the northern slopes of Belasica in the Strumica River valley near the village of Kliuch (in present-day Bulgaria). Upon orders of the emperor, between 14,000 and 15,000 captive Bulgars were blinded. The defeat weakened the Bulgars significantly and hastened the fall of the West Bulgarian Kingdom in 1018.