Archaeologists in southern Bulgaria have located remains of a completely preserved Thracian domed tomb decorated with murals, the daily Trud reported on Monday.

The tomb, near the town of Haskovo, 234km southeast of Sofia, is made of big stone blocks and has two chambers forming a dome at the top. There are paintings of horses and Thracian armed warriors on the walls.

The Thracians were Bronze Age people, whose civilisation thrived in the Balkans from 2000 BC until the invasion of the Slavs in the sixth century AD.

This is only the second Thracian tomb with murals of humans discovered in Bulgaria and one of the most significant in Thracian archaeology in this century, experts say.

The first Thracian tomb of this kind was unearthed in 1944 in the town of Kazanlak, 200km east of Sofia.

Earlier this year, archeologists discovered a palace and tomb of Thracian rulers, which is next to the biggest Thracian remains found to date in Bulgaria, about 161km south of the newly discovered painted tomb