3. Meteora, Greece - "Build Your House on a Rock"

Our third monastery is situated on some curious cliff formations in Greece, in the plains of Thessaly. Some of these formations reach 1800 feet above the plain. It was originally a complex of two dozen monasteries, dating back to the 14th century. Six of them are still standing today. Meteora means ""suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above":

(image credit: Leonidas Spetzos)

(image credit: Poseidon Simons)


(image credit: Adventurelogger)

The first monks occupied Meteora around 950-970 A.D. Apparently, they recognized the grand nature of the place. The fascinating shapes of the surrounding rocks were explained by Filipson, a German geologist. According to him, a few million years ago Meteora area was the estuary of a big river, accumulating silt into these cone structures. With the geographical uplift of the Central Greece, Thessaly became a big lake. Gradually, the Meteora rocks became detached from the Pindos Mountain chain, and with erosion, took the shapes we see today.

The Roussanou Monastery:

(images credit: Karolos Trivizas)

(image credit: Tomasz Moscicki)

View down the valley:


The monasteries were only accessible by baskets lifted by pulleys until the 1920's, when roads, steps and a bridge were built to accommodate more pilgrims and tourists.

(image credit: Magdalini Eirinaki)

Still it's quite a ways up to get inside any of the houses. Not a very friendly place to deliver groceries, but a great location for shooting dozens of James Bond movies.

(image credit: Greekvista.com)

Varlaam Monastery:
(all images by permission of Tom Dempsey)


Saint Nicholas Anapafsa Monastery:


Grand Meteora Monastery:


This area is also popular with rock climbers and one can imagine the tenacity of the first hermits who scaled the cliffs and inhabited the caves in search of solitude and spiritual awakening. A detailed history of this place can be found at Great Adventures.com.


(image credit: Ilias Kapetanakis)

image credit: odysseus.culture.gr)

The monks might not jump from cliff to cliff, but a dare-devil tourists would. It would certainly take a lot of faith :)

(image credit: Mr. Teklan)

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try , Sabtu, Oktober 06, 2007 | 0 komentar ::

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