Northern Dobruja (
Romanian Dobrogea;
Bulgarian ??????? ????????,
Severna Dobrudzha) is the part of
Dobruja within the borders of
Romania. It lies between the lower
Danube river and the
Black Sea, bordered in south by
Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.
The territory of Northern Dobrogea now forms the counties of Constanta and Tulcea, with a combined area of 15,500 km² and population of now slightly over a million.
The Danube Delta consists of numerous lakes. The most important ones are
The territory was under Ottoman rule until 1878, when it was awarded to Romania for its role in the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish War, and as compensation for the transfer of a region partly overlapping the Southern Bessarabia. Under the treaties of San Stefano and Berlin, Romania received Northern Dobruja while the newly restored principality of Bulgaria received the smaller Southern part of the region. After the Second Balkan War in 1913, Romania also occupied the Bulgarian Southern Dobruja, which it ruled until the signing of the 1940 Treaty of Craiova.
