Meteora

Meteora lies east of the Pindus range, in north-western Thessaly, some twenty-five kilometres north-north-west of Trikala. The name comes from the Greek meteoron, "suspended in the air", and describes the position of its monasteries, perched on rock pillars that rise above twenty metres and in many cases above three hundred.

The geological formation is some sixty million years old: it originated from river sediments laid down in an ancient delta, cemented into conglomerate and then uplifted and eroded until they were left isolated as vertical towers. Religious occupation began around the year 1000 with hermits settling in the cracks and caves of the pillars; the first documented buildings date from the eleventh century at Doupiani, and the first monastic community was founded in 1356 by Athanasios, from Mount Athos, who created the Great Meteoron following the strict rule of St Basil. The fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were its heyday, with twenty-four monasteries in operation; six remain today, among them the Great Meteoron, Varlaam, Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas, Rousanou, Agia Triada and Agios Stefanos.

For centuries the only access was by nets hauled up on pulleys and by retractable ladders that the monks drew up behind them. UNESCO inscribed it in 1988 under cultural criteria (i), (ii), (iv) and (v) and under natural criterion (vii), an uncommon combination that recognises both the monastic ensemble and the exceptional nature of the rock landscape. The crags also hold cliff-nesting birds and bat colonies.