 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Meteora MonasteriesGreece
The Meteora (Greek: "levitating") are monasteries in north-east Greece on the edge of the Pindus Mountains, built on spectacular natural rock pillars. They were started in the 15th century as places of refuge in troubled times and access to them was extremely difficult, requiring either long ladders lashed together or a windlass and rope pulling up a net, for goods and humans. In about the 1920s there was an improvement in the arrangements. Steps were cut in the rock that could be reached by rather flimsy bridges from the nearest solid rock. It is difficult to imagine how the monasteries were built on their pinnacles in the first place. Only a few of them are left now, tended by a few monks and nuns and visited by many tourists, hence the monastries now serve as museums. The Agia Triada or Holy Trinity monastery was used in the final scenes of the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only. The monastery Agiou Stephanou (Holy Stephen's) is inhabited by nuns only. The monasteries are included in the UNESCO "World Heritage sites" list.
This page was retrieved and condensed from
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora) October
2005
Hui Chin and I were determined to go and see the famous Monasteries at Meteora years ago when we seen the James Bond Movie. By train we went to Paleoforsales and changed trains there to go to Kalambaka. Kalambaka or Kalampaka (Confusing a bit, every second time it is spelled differently) is the nearest station to the Meteora Monasteries. Awesome sights, awesome experience a shame that heavy rain spoilt our adventure and could only see the last Monastery from the shelter of the inside of our Taxi.
You can click on
these photos for an enlargement.
Site Index Back to Top Photos Index Thanks for coming, I hope you
have enjoyed it, will recommend
it to your friends, and will come
back later to see my site developing
and expanding.
|
