Hi,
Those Meteora monasteries built on top of the cliffs are amazing!😀 Add this to the amazing look of the cliffs and you got this wonderful place to visit in 🙂
We had some time before we realize what made this beautiful nature phenomena. The rock is conglomerate – round stone hold together with clay. Where the rock has more clay (and more sand in it) the rock is weaker and it washed away with the water streams and wind. But in places where the rock contains less clay and more stone the rock is stronger and stands the water and wind. Those are the cliffs that you see keep standing.
The monasteries in Meteora are, surprise surprise, Greek Orthodox. For you it might not remind anything but for us the imagination is pretty clear: The Judaean desert monasteries (as in wadi Qelt, or the Cartanel above Jericho). Those are also Greek Orthodox, built on high cliffs with limited accessibility.
The ones in Israel have lavras, which are caves for hermits.The monks spends most of the day in those caves, and gathers for dinner and weekends days. It might be those caves are inside the monastery and cannot be seen from outside like in the monasteries in Israel.
The monasteries are not open all the days. The HolyMonastery of the Grand Meteoron is closed on Tuesday (the day we planned to visit to monesteries), while Valraam monastery and the HolyMonestary of Saint-Barbara are closed on Wednsdays. so if you a specific you want to visit in, remember to check before. We only visit the Valraam monastery, and thought it was enough.
Take Care
Gad
The view of Meteora cliffs from our hotel room
The cliffs and the caves from the road up
The HolyMonastery of Grand Meteoron
The HolyMonstarey of Grand Meteoron on the first day that was cloudy
The HolyMonastery of Grand Meteoron on a closer look
The entrance door of the monastery of Grand Meteoron is chieseled in the rock
The monastery of Grand Meteoron (the far one on yhe left) and the monastery of Varlaam (near of the right) from below
The HolyMonastery of Varlaam
Monastery of Varlaam on the first cloudy day
The entrance gate to Varlaam monastery
The rock above the gate to Varlaam monestary, looks like it aboout slip… and I don’t want to be here when it happens
The Varlaam monestary on the cliff
Looking back on the entrance pathway it is chiseled in the conglomerate rock
The entrance door to the monastery
The monastery courtyard
The main hall
The original “rag net” to allow easily delivery over the canyon
The canyon below the bridge
If only they knew how high the cliff is
Panorama places
First point – Many tourists gets here to take pictures
And the view they all taking pics with!
Second point of view
The wonderful view
The Monastery of Holy trinity stands alone
The map of Meteora with our friends’ hotel owner marks: the tripods are panorama views