[1] The Bolata Cove with a small sheltered beach lies just north at the mouth of a picturesque canyon, also part of the nature reserve.

The ancient geographer Strabo, describing Kaliakra, stated that the capital of King Lisimachus, one of Alexander's generals and ruler of Thrace, was located here.

In the 5-6th century, according to Hierocele, the fortress (now known as Accra Castellium or simply Accra-cape) gained the importance of a fortified nucleus against the oncoming barbarian tribes and was one of the 15 cities in the province of Scythia.

The German armored bearer Hans Schiltberger describes the peninsula as Kalacerca, derived from the "καλός" – beautiful / good and "τσέρκι" – a hoop, given the three walls of the Kaliakra fortress.

The heyday of Kaliakra was in the second half of the 14th century when it was the capital of the principality (despotate) of Carvun under the Bulgarian rulers Balik and Dobrotitsa.

In 1444, the knights of the Polish and Hungarian King Vladislav III Varnenczyk were stopped near Cape Kaliakra in their campaign against the Ottoman Empire.

The Russian squadron, led by Admiral Fyodor Ushakov, repeatedly defeated Hussein Pasha's superior Turkish armada, and helped end the war.

Probably the most popular legend about the place is one about 40 Bulgarian girls, who preferred to tie their hair together and jump into the Black Sea rather than face the prospect of being captured by the Ottomans.

A dervish monastery is also said to have existed on the same place during Ottoman rule, which is thought to have preserved the relics of Muslim Bektashi saint Sarı Saltık.

[4] A third legend is about Lysimachus, a successor of Alexander the Great, who seized the royal treasure and escaped to Kaliakra, dying in a major storm along with his whole fleet.