Meteora

After Delphi we drove up to Meteora for a few nights. This is where the monasteries are perched on top of huge rock outcrops. Prior to the mid 1300's there were many hermit monks in caves all around the area. This is because the geology provides the caves naturally. Then they decided to climb to the top of the rocks and band together. They built the first monastery in the mid 1300's and continued to around 1800 or so. They were spurred on as it was excellent security, given the Ottoman Empire's incursions into Greece around that time. At one stage there were 24, but now only 7 exist, of which 6 are still active and can be visited. Until 1920, none had stairs - the only way up was in baskets winched on ropes or on rope ladders. You can still see that infrastructure. The monastery's and landscape are very spectacular. Here are some pics.....

On the way up to Meteora we visited a couple of 16th century stone bridges in the mountains - very cool - and you could walk on them - although the one with the waterfall had holes in it so we weren't so confident!...

The setting in the mountains was fantastic - each time you went up a monastery you got different views. The rock outcrops are conglomerate (mix of sand and stone) - sediment from an old sea bed. They were uplifted by the African tectonic plate pushing under Europe. Then erosion removed most of it but these outcrops. It is surprisingly green, because it rains here a lot apparently...

We stayed at the town of Kastraki - a really nice laid back place surrounded by cliffs with a nice town square...

Inside each monastery there are churches with a riot of decoration and fantastic brass work - usually hanging down on chains - very atmospheric (when there aren't hordes of bus groups going through!)....

The site of each monastery is quite spectacular - the security meant they retained most of their religious relics and treasures in tact over the years....

Oh, and there are cats everywhere!....