The Monasteries of Meteora

About four hours northwest of Athens, in central Greece, there’s an extraordinary rock formation known as the Meteora. It’s a series of enormous rock pillars that rise up from the edge of the plain to dominate the landscape.

But the geology of the Meteora is not its only unusual feature; perched atop the giant rock columns is a series of ancient Orthodox monasteries. And when you see them, the first question that comes to mind isn’t why, but how?

Back in the 16th century there were 24 monasteries perched on the rocks of the Meteora - today six remain

You can see five of them in this photo

The town of Kalabaka sits at the base of the Meteora

The area was first settled in the 11th century when monks began living in caves in the rocks

The monks originally climbed up to the caves by wedging planks into holes in the rock face (in much the same way that timber cutters climbed trees)

Then the monks used rope ladders (which they could pull up behind themselves) to climb up and down

The monks were well supported by local people who would leave food at the base of the rocks, or in baskets which the monks had lowered

In fact baskets and ropes were used right up until the 1920s to transport supplies and materials to the monasteries

Think about what that meant for the construction of these buildings in the 15th and 16th centuries; everything had to come up in the basket - brick by brick

Some of the churches alone - the first structures to be built on Meteora - took 40 or even 80 years to build

It's an extraordinary testament to the dedication of generations of monks

These days the monasteries are connected by a road (though there's still a fair bit of climbing required to get to most of them)

Meteora means 'suspended in the air'; it seems an apt description

The view from the top of the Meteora is impressive; you can see across to the snow-capped peaks of the Pindus Mountains

Surprisingly these rocks are not volcanic - they were formed at the bottom of a delta as deposits of stone and mud; then movements of the earth pushed the seabed up and, over millions of years, weathering by wind, water and temperature did the rest

Today only a few monks (or nuns) live in the Meteora monasteries and, at certain times during the week, the buildings are open to the public

There are strict dress rules when visiting the monasteries; women wearing trousers are given a skirt to cover their legs

Visitors are able to see the monasteries' collections of precious religious paintings, icons and manuscripts

The Monastery of the Holy Trinity featured in the 1981 James Bond film 'For Yours Eyes Only'; there's a story that the producers gained permission to use the location by saying they were shooting a documentary about the Meteora - we wonder what the monks thought when they saw the doco!

Meteora was a long way from Athens, but without a doubt, seeing it was worth the effort