Zaldapa is the largest fortified Roman-Byzantine town in the interior of the Roman province of Scythia (Dobrudzha). The name Zaldapa itself (Zaldapa, Zeldepa, Zeldipas, Zardapa, Zelpa) is believed to be of a Thracian or Daco-Moesian origin and can literally be translated as «yellow (golden) cold (?) water / river (?)». Indeed, at the foot of the fortress passes a small creek, which forms a meander on which Zaldapa has been built.