Meteora, Greece

Meteora, Greece
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Meteora_0006.JPG
Author: Μυρμηγκάκι
Meteora is one of the two World Heritage Sites in Greece that are listed under the mixed category. The name Meteora means "suspended rocks", a vivid description of the landscape which is made up craggy cliffs and sandstone peaks. In this seemingly inhospitable landscape, Eastern Orthodox monks have built settlements that huge the cliffs.

There are twenty-four monasteries that were built in Meteora, of which six, placed on natural sandstone rock pillars, still remain today. The custom of building monasteries in this inhospitable terrain does back to the late 11th century. In 1356, Athanasios Koinovitis came to Meteora and founded a great monastery there. Meteora was favored by the monks as it offers them refuge from threats by Turkish raiders. The monks made their monasteries difficult to access, requiring the use of long ladders and nets to hoist up goods and people.

Today, the monasteries of Meteora are tourist attractions although they continue to function as before. Five of these house monks while one house Eastern Orthodox nuns.

Meteora was inscribed as a World Heritage Site during the 12th session of the World Heritage Committee held in Brasilia, Brazil, on 5 - 9 December, 1988.

World Heritage Site Inscription Details

Location: N 39 43 0.012 E 21 37 59.988 in the Prefecture of Trikala, Region of Thessaly
Inscription Year: 1988
Type of Site: Mixed
Inscription Criteria: I, II, IV, V, VII

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

About this website

Thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye. My hobby is to research information about places, and share the information with people on this website. I started this website on 5 January 2003, and since then, have written about over 20,000 places, mostly in Malaysia and Singapore.

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. While I try my best to provide you information that is as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors. Also, as I might not be able to update some information on time, some of these pages may contain outdated information.