1-217-061 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

'Peasants gathering roses in Roumelia', c1890. Roumelia or Rumelia in the Balkanic peninsula is an area near modern Bulgaria that roughly corresponds to Northern Greece, Albania, and Macedonia. It was part of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. These peasants are probably gathering flowers for attar of roses, a type of essential oil extracted from rose petals. The Rose Valley in Bulgaria is among the major producers of attar of roses in the world. An engraving from Robert Brown's The Countries of the World, published by Cassell, (London & Paris, c1890).