Fagus orientalis tree's natural range extends from southeastern Bulgaria's Strandja mountain, through northwest Turkey, and east to the Caucasus Mountains in Georgia and Russia, to the Alborz Mountains in Iran. Its habitat is restricted to mountain forests, at of altitude. The Oriental beech has colonized even lower altitudes in the Strandja mountain of Bulgaria as low as above sea-level, due to the unique local micro-climate, where it forms typical "Fagus orientalis"−"Rhododendron ponticum" forests as well as with other evergreen shrubs. The wood of "Fagus orientalis" is heavy, hard, strong and highly resistant to shock. These features makes it suitable for steam bending.
The Old Tree in 1900 in the Pavilion de l'Alma and the "La Plume" salon - in "La Revue Blanche", Felicien Fagus wrote: The Old Tree The Old Tree is a plaster sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, originally conceived as part of his "The Gates of Hell" project. He produced it in 1885, only a year after the formation of the Salon des Independents. It measures 39.3x38.4x27 cm and shows a nude young woman clinging to an old man holding his arms out like a tree, contrasting several opposites - male and female, youth and age, softness and roughness. The work