Mountain hiking trail Kom – Emine
The Bulgarian mountain hiking trail of friendship Kom-Emine (short KE-Weg, Bulgarian Ком - Емине ) is 650 km long and thus the longest marked hiking trail in Bulgaria. It was opened in 1985 and was originally intended as a continuation of the International Mountain Hiking Trail Eisenach - Budapest (EB). This was shown by the logo in the same design. The Bulgarian tourist association even published a joint hiking book for EB and KE.
The starting point of the mountain hiking trail is the mountain Kom (bulg. Ком, 2016 m). Then the path runs across Bulgaria on the ridge of the Stara Planina (Balkan Mountains) over the Schipka Pass (1306 m) to the Thracian Cape Emine (Bulgarian Емине). The middle of the path is around the Usana mountain hut in the geographical center of Bulgaria.
A hike over the entire KE trail takes 20 to 25 days. Each section ends at a mountain hut or other overnight accommodation. There are also marathon competitions, with the official record so far being 5 days and 17 hours.
After 1989, the KE path was integrated into the European long-distance hiking trail E3 .
There is a tradition of taking two stones from Mount Kom with you, to throw one of them into the Black Sea at Cape Emine at the end of the hike and complete crossing of Bulgaria and to keep the other stone as a souvenir.