Travel Monday: A Photo Trip to Meteora, Greece

Alan Taylor
April 9, 2018
25 Photos
In Focus

Today’s entry is the first of a semi-regular Travel Monday series, with virtual photo trips to interesting, unusual, difficult-to-reach, or simply beautiful parts of our planet. Today, we’re visiting the amazing clifftop monasteries of Meteora in central Greece. Monks and hermits have been finding refuge in this unique rock formation for more than a thousand years. Six Eastern Orthodox monasteries—some dating back to the 14th century—remain in place, still home to a small number of monks and nuns. Meteora is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and welcomes thousands of tourists every year. Gathered below, a collection of images of Meteora, the ancient structures atop its massive rock pillars, and the village and countryside below.

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The rising sun illuminates the Monastery of the Holy Trinity and parts of nearby village of Kalabaka below, at the Meteora rock formation in central Greece. The monastery was built between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and is one of the oldest of six remaining Eastern Orthodox monasteries built atop and along the cliffs of Meteora. #

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The Monastery of Rousanou. #

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People descend stone stairs from a monastery in Meteora. #

Maskalin / Shutterstock

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An evening view of the Monastery of Varlaam, with the Monastery of Rousanou visible in the background. #

Georgios Tsichlis / Shutterstock

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The skulls of deceased monks in an ossuary are seen through a locked door at the Megalo Meteoro, or "Metamorphisis monastery," in Meteora on April 11, 2007. #

Aris Messinis / AFP / Getty

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Visitors look inside the Megalo Meteoro Monastery. #

Milos Bicanski / Getty

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Visitors look at an old lifting system inside the Monastery of Agia Triada in Meteora. #

Milos Bicanski / Getty

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The Monastery of Rousanou and Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas. #

George Papapostolou / Getty

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A cable car used by monks at the Great Meteora Monastery. #

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The Rousanou Monastery. #

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Lights from the village of Kalambaka illuminate the cliffs of Meteora at night. #

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The Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas, viewed at night under the Milky Way. #

George Papapostolou / Getty

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The Rousanou Monastery above a mist-filled valley. #

Dimitrios Tilis / Getty

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A small kitchen garden built precariously on a huge eroded granite boulder outside the Monastery of St. Stephen. #

Federica Grassi / Getty

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The interior of the church of the Nunnery of Saint Roussanou, photographed on May 14, 2013. #

Dimitri Messinis / AP

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A carpenter's workshop inside the Monastery of Great Meteoron. #

Tomas Zrna / Getty

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The Rousanou Monastery, amid the unique cliffs of Meteora. #

Marius Roman / Getty

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Walkways, terraces, roads, and bridges—the landscape of Meteora. #

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Buildings of the village of Kalabaka can be seen below the Rousanou Monastery. #

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The village of Kalampaka, at the foot of the Meteora rock formation. #

Mitrakoulis Alexandros / Getty

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The small Monastery of Ypapanti, originally built into a cave on a cliffside in Meteora in the 14th century. #

Siete Vidas / Shutterstock

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The Monastery of Varlaam, the second largest monastery in Meteora. #

CC BY Gabriel / Flickr

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An Orthodox priest takes a cable car to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity on May 9, 2008. #

Milos Bicanski / Getty

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The Monastery of the Holy Trinity. #

Eguchi Naohiro / Shutterstock

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Doupiani rock, center, part of the Meteora rock formation, surrounded by autumn colors in central Greece. #

Richard Fairless / Getty

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