Huge boulders that rise at precipitous heights. Giant bedrock holes that look like imprints of footsteps. Strange ruins from times immemorial… Bulgaria and the Balkans are dotted with such places – natural phenomena carved by the sun, rain and wind, remains of ancient rock shrines or forgotten fortifications erected by some obscure warlord.

However, if you were to travel back in time, say 150 years, and asked the locals about the origins of this strange rock or that mysterious "imprint," they would not hesitate to tell you: "Krali Marko did them!". Then they would say that the warrior saved some maiden by this rock, or that he sat to rest under that crevice, or that he feasted with his friends in the castle yonder, before being betrayed to his enemies by his wife.

Krali Marko is a curious emanation of the imagination of the people in the Balkans. Part mythical hero, part historical figure, he is venerated across modern Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia as the mighty man who protected lands and people from the Ottoman invasion.

Treskavets Monastery, located near the seat of the historical Marko, the ruler who later inspired the mythical hero, is closely associated with his legacy

For centuries, legends and epic songs were told and sung. As they spread, they transformed and became more and more elaborate, telling the story of a larger-than-life Krali Marko. The owner of a wondrous spotted horse, he encountered fairies, braved invaders and traitors, participated in heroic competitions, and freed thousands of enslaved men and women. It is hardly a surprise, then, that many locations in modern Bulgaria, Serbia and North Macedonia bear his name.

The real-life prototype of the mythical Krali Marko, however, has little to do with his epic doppelgänger.

Marko (1335-1395) was a relatively insignificant feudal lord in the 14th century Balkans. At the time, the region was exhausted by plagues, failed crops, religious zealotry and petty feuds that were tearing apart the once strong, but now waning, states of Bulgaria, Serbia and Byzantium. What was once a small number of local powers was now a mosaic of large and small kingdoms and fiefdoms, plus a bunch of rogue noblemen eager to seize their moment.

Treskavets is now in the Republic of North Macedonia

None of these people was a leader fit for the historical moment. The young, motivated and excellently organised Ottoman army was steadily gaining ground and territories across the Balkans. The efforts of Serb and Bulgarian kings, and of the Byzantine kings, to stop its advance mostly failed, and some of the petty nobles would rather cooperate with the invader rather than face it in battle. Marko, the ruler of Prilep in today's North Macedonia, was one of those. He became a vassal of the Ottomans and remained loyal to them until he died, fighting for the sultan against fellow Christians, in the Battle of Rovine.

How exactly a loyal Ottoman vassal became the mythical embodiment of Christian opposition to the Ottoman invasion remains a mystery. It was probably pure chance. The frustrated Balkan people needed a hero to believe in, and somehow Marko stuck in their memory. With time, memory became legend and then crystallised into myth. As nationalism in the Balkans rose, in the 18th-19th centuries, artists and story-tellers made Krali Marko a part of modern plays, paintings and literature. The transformation was complete.

According to some legends, Marko used to live on Botev Peak, the highest summit of the Stara Planina mountain range

Typically for the region, Bulgarians, Macedonians and Serbians all claim Krali Marko as one of their kin. Most historical traces of the true Krali Marko are in North Macedonia. A monastery south of Skopje, appropriately called Marko's Monastery, has preserved the portrait of the real man. Dark, slim and troubled, the man painted on the church wall looks like the last man on earth to become the prototype of a mighty hero.

Prilep, where Prince Marko's seat was, is now a sleepy backwater. The remains of his castle, locally known as Markovi Kuli, or Marko's Towers, still loom over the town from a precipitous rocky hill. Nearby, on another hill, rises the beautiful medieval Treskavec Monastery which he probably frequented.

Both the fortress and the monastery were built over the remains of ancient rock shrines. Millennia ago, people went there to pray to a mighty, but nameless god. It is highly probable that in the centuries after the Ottoman conquest, murky memories about this deity amalgamated with the memories of the historical Marko. The image of amazing Krali Marko, strongman and liberator of the oppressed – almost an outsized Balkan Robin Hood, was born.

Marko cut this rock, near the village of Gortalovo, while fighting a foe, according to local lore

The stories told in Bulgaria about Krali Marko's origins clearly illustrate the amalgamation of pagan traditions and medieval history. According to them, Marko was the son of Momchil Voyvoda (another real-life historical figure, a maverick nobleman who opposed the Ottoman invasion in the Rhodope). While Marko was still in the crib, the king learned that he would one day dethrone him, and ordered him killed. Marko's parents left him in the forest, where he was found by a nymph (a representation of the ancient Thracian Great Goddess). She suckled him, giving him supernatural powers.

Bulgaria abounds with remains of ancient Thracian rock shrines that later generations have attributed to Krali Marko. Strange, large basins in flat rocks, where ancient people would pour wine, water and blood in forgotten religious rituals devoted to the Great God and the Great Goddess, are seen in popular imagination as the imprints of Marko's feet – or of his horse's hooves. It is hard to count how many ancient rock shrines are called Markova Stapka, or Marko's Step, Markov Kamak, or Marko's Rock, or something of the kind. The list includes the megalithic shrine under Tsarev Vrah peak in the Rila, Markova Stapka near Pernik and Marko's Rock near Yabalkovo village, in the Strandzha.

Another Marko's Rock, near Pavlikeni, is in fact the most visible remnant of an ancient Roman mausoleum

Many of the places associated in legends with Krali Marko tell stories of vicious battles with his archenemy, a mythical antagonist symbolising the Ottoman invaders. One of the most spectacular of these places is the rocky canyon of the Chernelka River, by Gortalovo village near Pleven. According to the legend, Krali Marko and his foe fought there for three days and three nights. Krali Marko plunged with his sword, but missed and split a giant rock in two. The rock is still there, part of the eco trail through the canyon.

Another legend tells that Krali Marko resided at the top of the Stara Planina's highest peak, the modern Botev Peak. His throne, his wheat field and his threshing floor were all around, and can still be seen, turned to stone.

Some legends present Marko as somewhat vain. Take, for example, the story about Marko and his sister, who was as big and strong as he was. One day they decided to compete who could throw a stone so high that it would fly over the Maragidik Peak in the Stara Planina. And so they did. Then Marko mounted his horse and went to check who had won. It was his sister. The hero went berserk: both his footsteps and hooves of his horse were imprinted on the flat rock.

Locals in Yabalkovo claim that the hero once rode near their village and, for some reason, decided to pick up a pebble and toss it over his shoulder. That "pebble" is the massive boulder now known as – yes, you guessed it – Marko's Rock

Another story showing Marko as a bad loser is told about the two ancient Roman pillars that stand near Pavlikeni. They originally belonged to the mausoleum of a local Roman, but over time both the Roman and the mausoleum were forgotten. A legend emerged. It tells how Krali Marko and a rival competed for the love of a local girl. The girl promised to marry the one who built the higher stone pillar. Marko, of course, won. However, the girl still chose the other guy as she was, in fact, in love with him. Enraged, Marko smashed the rival's column. His column – an embodiment of his huge, although hurt ego, still rises amid the cornfields. The locals still call it... Marko's Rock.