The name comes either from a Greek word meaning a bivouac, a fortified place, or from two Turkish words meaning yellow fire. Its translation suggests that the place be called a ‘yellow height’, the way it was used under that name in the Russian-Turkish war by General Skobelev’s detachment.
    The legend has it that during the Ottoman occupation of the town of Lovech, its defenders, who had been fortified within the fortress, offered great resistance. The aggressors resorted to an expedient. One night the Ottomans made big fires (according to some tales they lit candles on the horns of a herd of rams. The herdsman was a white-bearded old man in long white clothes. The defenders of the fortress decided it was a sign given by God, and opened the gates). The yellow flame was reflected on the opposite hill (Ak bair, situated above the hospital). They thought that their enemies intended to occupy the fortress from its Western side or from another place. The defence was made weaker along the Eastern front, from where the Ottomans could easily conquer the fortress of Lovech.