EXPLORATIONS IN PRESLAV (Stoicho Bonev – stoi40_50@abv.bg) The explorations of the building with the portico continued. The third room is 5.20 m long. A room-annex, 3.20 m by 1.80 m in size, was explored in front of the northern façade. The building is 22.60 m long and consists of three rooms arranged in a line oriented east – west. The rooms are interconnected with entrances 70 cm wide. There is a portico supported by square pillars, 80 cm by 80 cm in size, at 2.80 m in front of the northern façade. There is a path of stone slabs in front of the middle room. The path leads to the southern wall of a step-like water construction. There is a building with the complex layout at 1.80 m to the north of the portico. Its foundations are 80 cm deep and its walls are 80 cm thick, while the eastern wall is 1 m thick. The building measures 12.70 m by 15.30 m and consists of nine rooms arranged in three lines. The western and the eastern lines of rooms are 2 m wide, while the middle line is 4.70 m wide. There are three bases of columns, 90 cm by 90 cm, in the middle of the central northern room. A pavement of stone slabs unified the area between the building with the portico, the building with the complex layout and the fortification wall that existed before Preslav became the capital of the First Bulgarian Kingdom in AD 893. Both building were demolished in the end of the 10th or the beginning of the 11th century. At the end of the 11th century, midden pits appeared over the debris of the buildings. The pits contained pottery of the 12th century, iron objects and details of decorative sculpture. A Christian cemetery appeared on the site in the 13th century. In 2006, 70 graves were discovered, in addition to 105 graves excavated in 2005. Probably, the memory for the architectural ensemble, which existed in the period when Preslav was the capital (AD 893 – 972), was still alive in the 13th century and the place became sacred.