The geographic entity of Antarctica comprises the Antarctic Continent and its adjacent islands and polar waters. Its natural physical boundary is the Antarctic Convergence or Antarctic Polar Front, a well defined 50-km wide zone encircling the earth at about 55° south latitude where cold southern waters and warmer northern waters meet.
'Political' Antarctica is confined to the territories south of 60° south latitude proper, administered since 1961 under the Antarctic Treaty by an exclusive club of 28 nations including Bulgaria.
Livingston Island is situated in the Southern Ocean, 110 km northwest of Cape Roquemaurel on the Antarctic Peninsula, 830 km south-southeast of Cape Horn, 1000 km south of the Falkland Islands, 1600 km southwest of South Georgia, 3000 km from the South Pole and 13600 km from Bulgaria. The Island is part of the South Shetlands archipelago, a 500-km long chain of eleven main islands and numerous smaller islets and rocks separated from South America by the Drake Passage and from the Antarctic mainland by Bransfield Strait.
Livingston is extending 73 km from Renier Point in the east to Start Point in the west. Its width varies from 4 km at the base of Byers Peninsula, and 5 km at the neck between Hero Bay and South Bay, to 34 km between Williams Point and Botev Point. Livingston features six larger peninsulas: Byers in the west; Hurd and Rozhen in the south; Burgas in the east; Varna in the northeast; and Ioannes Paulus II in the north. Seven major bays indent the coast: New Plymouth in the west; Walker Bay, South Bay and False Bay in the south, Moon Bay in the east; and Hero Bay and Barclay Bay in the north.
The Island is heavily glaciated. Over 90% of its land surface is covered by an ice cap, highly crevassed in many segments. Typical of the Island's glaciology are the conspicuous ash layers originating from volcanic activity on the neighbouring Deception Island. Ice cliffs, often withdrawing in the recent decades to uncover new coves, beaches and points, form most of the coastline.
The Island's changeable, windy, humid and sunless weather is reputedly among the worst on earth. Whiteouts are common, and blizzards can occur at any time of the year. Temperatures are rather constant, rarely exceeding 3°C in summer or falling below -11°C in winter, with wind chill temperatures some 5-10°C lower on the average.

History

Historically, Livingston was the first land discovered in 'political' Antarctica. Captain William Smith in the English merchant brig Williams, after being blown off course in the Drake Passage, on 19 February 1819 sighted the northeast extremity of the Island at Williams Point. The discovery of the South Shetlands group attracted American and British sealers who took hundreds of thousands of fur seals to almost exterminate the species in just few seasons. Remains of sealers huts, boats and other artefacts are still found on the Island, which possesses the greatest concentration of historical sites in Antarctica.

Place Names

A number of local place names go back to the early sealing era and/or commemorate sealing vessels like Huron, Williams, Samuel, Gleaner, Huntress, Charity, Hannah, Henry, John and Hero, ship captains such as the Americans Burdick, Barnard, Johnson, MacKay, Inott, Leslie, Brunow, Macy, Moores and Napier, the Britons Shirreff, M'Kean, Walker, Bond, MacGregor, Binn and Bowles, the Australian Siddons, also shipowner Byers and hydrographer Hurd. San Telmo Island is named for a Spanish 74-gun warship wrecked off Cape Shirreff in September 1819 with the loss of 644 officers, soldiers and seamen. Names like Devils Point, Hell Gates and Neck or Nothing Passage are indicative of hazardous places where ships and men were lost; Robbery Beaches was the scene of a clash over sealskins etc. The origins of few early names including Livingston and Mount Friesland remain uncertain.
Recent place names generally reflect the national culture of scientists from various countries active in the region. Presently, 198 out of some 500 existing Livingston names are Bulgarian. (There are also 2 Bulgarian names on Alexander Island, making up a total of 200 Bulgarian names out of more than 17,000 Antarctic names.) New Bulgarian place names are approved by the Bulgarian Antarctic Place-names Commission at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and decreed by the President of Bulgaria according to the Constitution. New names are registered with the authoritative international registry of all Antarctic place names, the Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica of the international Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR).
In connection with the Tangra 2004/05 survey, the Antarctic Place-names Commission of Bulgaria approved 60 new names of previously nameless geographical features on Livingston Island on 11 April 2005, promulgated in the SCAR Composite Gazetteer of Antarctica since 1 July 2005.

Scientific Bases

The permanent scientific bases of Juan Carlos I (Spain) and St. Kliment Ohridski (Bulgaria) were established in 1988 at South Bay. Research at St. Kliment Ohridski is focusing mainly on geology, biology and human medicine, glaciology, geodesy and geographic information. Other base facilities are Guillermo Mann (Chile) on Cape Shirreff, and Camara (Argentina) on Half Moon Island. Occasional field camps support research in remote areas of the Island; the Tangra 2004/05 survey in particular was carried out from Camp Academia situated in central Tangra Mountains.

Tourism

Besides the resident scientists, Livingston is attracting numerous tourists nowadays. The Antarctic shipborne tourism was initiated in 1958 in the South Shetland Islands. Since then the number of tourists in Antarctica has grown to tens of thousands annually, of whom over 95% tour the South Shetlands and the nearby Antarctic Peninsula. Hannah Point on the south coast of Livingston and Half Moon Island off the east coast are among the most popular destinations frequented by cruise ships, offering walks amidst spectacular scenery and amazing Antarctic wildlife.

Tangra 2004/05 Survey

The mission of the topographic survey Tangra 2004/05 was to make the first exploration of certain remote areas in the mountainous eastern Livingston Island. This was accomplished by a two-man team comprising Dr. Lyubomir Ivanov, senior research associate at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, participant in four Antarctic expeditions and chairman of the Bulgarian Antarctic Place-names Commission; and Doychin Vasilev, alpinist, film author and climber of five 8,000-meter peaks including Mount Everest. Prof. Christo Pimpirev and the Bulgarian Antarctic Institute, base commander Yordan Yordanov and the crew of St. Kliment Ohridski base, the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs supported the survey sponsored by Petrol Holding, TNT Bulgaria, Polytours, M-Tel, Bulstrad, B. Bekyarov and B. Chernev. The Uruguayan Antarctic naval ship Vanguardia, and the Russian research ship Akademik Sergey Vavilov operated by the Australian company Peregrine Shipping provided logistic support in Antarctica. The Bulgarian Posts Plc operated the post office of 1091 Tangra at Camp Academia, despatching 517 mail consignments to 26 countries.

In the course of field work carried out from the base camp Academia and forward bivouacs at Catalunyan Saddle and Leslie Hill, L. Ivanov and D. Vasilev covered on ski or on foot some 200 km, opening new overland routes in Tangra Mountains, Bowles Ridge, Vidin Heights and the glaciers Huron, Kaliakra and Perunika. More than 70 geographical features were GPS surveyed, including the summit Mount Friesland (1700 m, third ascent). Over 20 heights were ascended for the first time, including the peaks Lyaskovets (1473 m), Miziya (604 m), Radnevo (481 m), Gleaner (531 m), Melnik (696 m), Komini (774 m), Ongal (1149 m), (Ravda 664 m) and Zograf (1011 m). A comprehensive photographic documentation was compiled for the geographical features situated in central and eastern Livingston Island, Half Moon Island and Greenwich Island.

New Mapping

Presently, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry has commissioned the publication of a 1:100000 scale topographic map of Livingston Island promoting Bulgaria's effort and contribution to the Antarctic science. This new map is based on the 1968 South Shetland Islands map of the UK Directorate of Overseas Surveys; the 1992 SPOT satellite image image of Livingston Island and Greenwich Island made by the Institut Cartografic de Catalunya and the Departament de Geodinamica i Geofisica, Universitat de Barcelona; and the 1995/96 and 2004/05 Bulgarian topographic surveys by L. Ivanov.

The post office "Antarktika-Tangra 1091" of the Bulgarian Posts Plc was operated under a standard contract for a temporary post office according to the normal traditional practice and regulations of the Bulgarian Posts.

The Tangra 1091 post office is the second and southernmost Bulgarian post office in Antarctica. (The first one was the post office at the Bulgarian base St. Kliment Ohridski established 10 Antarctic seasons earlier, also as the result of an initiative by Lyubomir Ivanov endorsed by the Bulgarian Posts.)

Address: Camp Academia; 1091 Tangra; Livingston Island; Antarctica

Location: Camp Academia, 62°38'41.9" South Latitude, 60°10'18.3" West Longitude, situated at 541 m above sea level on the ice of upper Huron Glacier in central Tangra Mountains, Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands, Western Antarctica.

The Post Office was functional during the entire duration of the Tangra 2004/05 Survey in Antarctica, from 25 November 2004 until 11 January 2005; Camp Academia itself was set up on 3-8 December 2004 and continuously occupied until 2 January 2005.

Statistics exists for the outgoing mail: A total of 517 outgoing mail consignments (letters and postcards) distributed geographically between 30 countries as follows: