Plovdiv Province Plovdiv Province Plovdiv Province (: "Oblast Plovdiv", former name Plovdiv okrug) is a province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, "obshtini", sing. общинa, "obshtina") on a territory of 5,972.9 km² with a population, as of February 2011, of 683,027 inhabitants. The province is named after its administrative and industrial centre — the city of Plovdiv. Plovdiv Province includes parts of the Upper Thracian Plain, the Rhodopes, Sredna Gora, the Sub-Balkan valleys and Stara Planina, including its highest peak, Botev (2,376m). The main rivers in the province are Maritsa, Stryama, Pyasachnik. There are numerous dams, the most important
Plovdiv Arts; and others. The 2009 International Olympiad in Informatics (IOI) was held at the University of Plovdiv "Paisiy Hilendarski", between 8 and 15 August 2009. The 2009 IOI Honorary Patron was Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. Between 1875 and 1906, the Zariphios School was one of the local Greek educational institutions that provided elementary and secondary education. Plovdiv Sports Complex consists of Plovdiv Stadium with several additional football fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, a rowing base with a 2 km-long channel, restaurants, and cafés in a spacious park in the western part of the city just south of the Maritsa river.