The area of the territory owned by Gelou is not precisely known. However, it could be supposed that the salt mines from Turda, Ocna Dejului, Cojocna, Sic were included. The salt was very important in the early Middle Ages and its possession was the purpose of the power exerted by Gelou or by other rulers. The population consisted by Romanians and Slavs.

This principality appeared in the circumstances created after the fall of the Avar power. Bulgaria extended a kind of domination in southern Transylvania, up to the Mureş river, in the zone of other salt mines. Near Alba Iulia it was discovered a group of settlements and cemeteries dated in the second half of the 9^th century that have some analogies in the Lower Danubian area. The fine polished gray ceramic (Dridu B type) was found in Transylvania only in the small area between Alba Iulia and Sebeş and also in a few points in southeastern Transylvania. These findings were interpreted as proofs for a Bulgarian domination in the area nearby Alba Iulia. Its goal was the control over the salt mines and over the trade made by the river Mureş. In this zone were also found weapons and spurs of Frankish origin. It seems that Alba Iulia was the centre of a territory subjected to Bulgaria until the Hungarian offensive towards east.

Bulgaria did not control the northwestern part of Transylvania. This allowed the evolvement of a free principality. We should remember here that GH said that Gelou dominium tenebat. He was a free ruler.

The existence of the Romanian and Slavic population attested by GH is proved by the survival of some ancient names of rivers (Someş, Criş, Mureş, Ampoi). Linguistics shows that the Western Mountains were a region of strong preservation of the Romanic people during the migration period. In some places in these mountains it was found a pottery of Roman descent dating in the 8^th-9^th centuries. An accurate research of the highlands could bring important and unexpected data about the Romanian continuity in Transylvania. The settlement of Albeşti (near Sighişoara) shows that the higher and wooden areas preserved in better conditions the Roman traditions. In the region where Gelou"s principality is located it was spread a ceramic type made at the fast wheel, of Roman descent, which disappeared in the most of the Romanian space after the 6^th Century.

However, only the research of several cemeteries would let us know more about the territory owned by Gelou.

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