Morava-Maritza trench

The full significance of the Morava-Maritza trench can be appreciated only in case we recall the important role it has always played in the history of the Nearer East. From all parts of Europe highways of travel converge southeastward toward the points where Occident and Orient touch hands at the Bosporus. Whether coming from the plains of the Po over the Pear Tree Pass, from western and central Europe along the upper Danube, or from farther north through the Moravian and other gaps to the Vienna gateway, travelers find the mass of the Balkans blocking the path to Constantinople and the Bast; just as in other days the hosts which invaded Europe from the lands of Asia Minor found in this same barrier an impediment to progress toward the northwest. Under these conditions it was inevitable that a continuous river trench cutting clear through the barrier from the plains of Hungary to the shores of the Bosporus should become a topographic feature of commanding historical importance.

Morava-Maritza valley

Long before the time of the Romans the Morava-Maritza valley had become a highway for peoples migrating east or west through the mountainous Balkan lands. In a later day one of the principal Roman military roads led from Belgrade through the trench to Constantinople. The great Slavonic flood which issued from the plains of northeastern Europe through the Moravian and Vienna gateways entered the Morava valley and, in the seventh century of our era, was flowing through the trench to surge about the walls of Adrianople. A few centuries more, and the mountain sides were echoiug the shouts of the Crusaders who toiled along the same pathway to fight for the Holy Sepulcher. Back through the same defile came those hordes of conquering Turks who pushed the limits of their misrule to the very gates of Vienna.

In our day a double line of steel rails has succeeded trail and military road, and the smoke of the Orient Express hangs low in the very valley where, centuries ago, dust clouds were raised by the passing of Roman legions, Crusading knights, or Turkish infantry. Here is the vital link in the great Berlin-to-Bagdad railway route, the channel through which German ambition hopes to reach the Far East, and the path by which the Teutonic powers must send men and munitions to the hard-pressed Turks and bring back food to their own hungry people.