Three Bulgarian presidents will see their heads carved in the rocks above the town of Simitli in southern Bulgaria, the town's mayor Apostol Apostolov told The Sofia Echo on March 7 2008.

The three are Zhelyu Zhelev (1990-97) - the first democratically elected president of Bulgaria after the fall of communism in 1989, Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002) and incumbent Georgi Purvanov, who was first elected in 2001.

“We haven't yet spoken to the three of them, but I don't think they will mind the fact they'll have a monument while they are still alive,” Apostolov said. The idea emerged three years ago when Apostolov and friends were talking a walk in the nearby Maleshvska mountain, 30km from the border with Macedonia.

“When we saw the Komatinskite skali (rocks) area, we through that it is a great place to open for tourists. It started more like a joke but when we recalled the US Mount Rushmore we thought that it will be nice to have something to show people besides the lovely nature,” he said.

A discussion was started in the town about the people that deserved to be on the Bulgarian Mount Rushmore memorial. “There were suggestions that we should put the faces of Bulgarian heroes such as Vassil Levski, Hrosto Botev or local heroes but at the end we decided to stick to the US model,” Apostolov said.

The project has been commissioned to a local artist and should be finished by the end of April. “We have already found sponsors for the project, local ones,” Apostolov said without revealing their identity.