Ride up to the ruined fortress above Enisala late in the day and you will see why somebody chose this hill seven hundred years ago. Below, the vast Razim lagoon stretches toward the Black Sea, the reed beds go copper in the low sun, and the whole of the flat lake country is laid out like a map. The fortress, usually called Heracleea, probably dates from the late thirteenth or fourteenth century, when Genoese and Byzantine traders ran the commerce of the Black Sea; the Ottomans used it later. In those days the water beneath was an open bay of the sea, and ships could sail almost to the foot of the walls before the lagoon silted shut.
The walls are partly restored, with towers and a gate you can walk through, and there is not much else up there except wind, lizards on the warm stone and the sound of larks over the steppe. Down in the village, which has little more than a thousand people, a small peasant household museum shows how families here lived a century ago: reed roofs, woven rugs, an earthen oven, tools hanging on the walls. The surrounding lagoons belong to the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, and pelicans, cormorants and egrets are common sights in season.
Getting here is easy and gentle. The road from Babadag runs east through open farmland and low hills, and the final pull up to the fortress is a short, steep and narrow lane with a little car park at the top; mind the loose gravel at the edges when you turn the bike. The landscape is all horizon, and on the open stretches near the water the wind can be strong enough to make a light bike wander.
Enisala itself offers very little in the way of services, so treat it as a viewpoint and a breather. Sarichioi, about eight kilometres north on the lagoon shore, and Babadag to the west are the places for fuel, shops and a meal. In summer there is almost no shade up on the hill, and the heat bounces off the limestone, so bring water and come in the early morning or the last two hours of daylight. Spring and autumn add the bird migration, when the lagoon below fills with flocks.