Meteora is an incredible landscape in central Greece, where giant rock pillars reach to the sky. This remarkable landscape was formed when deposits of sand, mud and stone flowed into a delta at the end of an ancient lake. Then sixty million years ago, the earth pushed upwards, creating a high plateau, with many fault lines. Erosion by water, wind and extreme temperatures along those fault lines created the enormous columns of rock that you see today.

Perched atop those massive rock pillars sit several mountaintop monasteries. Orthodox Christian hermit monks first arrived at Meteora in the 9th and 10th centuries. Originally, they lived in the many caves found throughout the cliffs. Then in the 14th century a monk named Athanasios climbed one of the massive rock pillars to establish the first of the Meteora Monasteries. Of the original twenty-four monasteries, six are still active today.

We visited the Monastery of Varlaam, which sits 1200 feet above the valley floor. Varlaam is the second largest monastery in Meteora and can be accessed by climbing 195 steps. Varlaam was originally established in 1350 when a month named Varlaam managed to climb the cliff, followed by a few other monks. After Varlaam died, the monastery fell into ruins. Then in the early 16th century, two brothers reactivated the abandoned monastery and built a beautiful chapel dedicated to all saints. After our visit to Varlaam, we hiked on the Monks Trail back to the town of Kastraki.

We also visit the beautiful Philosophou Monastery and Monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos located in the Peloponnese region of Greece. While in the Peloponnese, we hiked through a spectacular gorge along the Lousios River.

Below are the chapters, for this video:
0:00 Intro to Meteora Greece
2:41 Varlaam Monastery
4:43 Monks Trail
7:34 Philosophou Monastery
8:43 Lousios River Hike
9:20 Monastery of Agios Ioannis Prodromos

Painting of Athanasios provided by Wikimedia Commons free media repository. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

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