I visited this WHS in 2023. Unlike the Thracian Tomb of Sveshtari, the Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak is right in the middle of a very urban setting, almost like Malta's Hypogeum of Hal Saflieni, although at least it has a small park area as a buffer zone. This contains the closed original tomb with a dome and the latest protective structure, rightly marked as the original tomb. Like at the original Lascaux cave in France's Vezere Valley, there's nothing much to see here apart from the UNESCO WHS inscription plaque which is proudly displayed here.

A few hundred metres away, there is the accessible replica tomb which consists of a hallway, a rectangular antechamber and a round burial chamber. The wall with the entrance to the antechamber is covered with stucco. Although the entrance is 1.96 metres high and 0.72 metres wide at the base, its sides tilt smoothlt to a certain height and then they abruptly narrow down in order to form a pointed triangle at the top (do mind your head when going in and especially when going back out!). The entrance between the two chambers is covered with plaster and fully decorated with colourful ornamentation. The burial chamber has a diameter of 2.65 metres and is 3.25 metres high. A beehive-like bell shaped dome is formed by gradually declining the rows of sector bricks and precise reversal of the dome curve in two places, closed at the top with a keystone.

The walls were plastered with clay and covered with white stucco, preserved only at a small area on the eastern wall. The floor of the antechamber is painted in Pompeian red. The architrave is reduced to two narrow bands, the lower one coloured in yellow and the upper one coloured in red, followed above by a pearl string and a bluish shade on a black base. A plant frieze on a black background follows and in the central part of each of the long walls there is a red and light grey palmette, with greyish pink tendrils running outwards. The murals are complete by figured friezes with war scenes on the dome. Central for each scene is a couple of warriors, joined by armed infantry and horsemen, galloping from both sides. Their armament is represented above all by different types of helmets, short spears and shields.

Towards the edge of the dome painting there are three fascias, on which there are 12 alternating rosettes, 12 four-leaf rosettes and 12 bukrani. Above them, in a central position, there are three figures: a Thracian nobleman, crowned with a golden crown and seated on a low stool, his wife wearing a veil and a tiara on her head, sitting on a throne, and a woman in peplos stepping towards them with a tray in her hands. On both sides of this group a procession is formed. Behind the woman in peplos a young man is depicted carrying a jug and a cup in his hands. Two musicians in long coats follow, then two warriors leading saddled horses, and women bearing gifts. The top of the dome is decorated by a race of 3 chariots or bigae pulled by two horses each. The frieze is divided into three fields by 3 Ionic columns.

The Kazanlak tomb replica is open every day and admission is free every last Monday of the month. Although the original paintings and tomb in my opinion truly possess OUV, and judging by the lack of colour in the Sveshtari and Seuthopolis tombs the use of a replica tomb is justified, the visitor experience can only truly be enhanced by visiting the other accessible tombs at the remarkable royal necropolis of the Thracian city of Seuthopolis (currently tWHS extension) and the worthwhile National Archaeological Museum in Sofia.