The Meteora would be the right place to visit if you ever want to travel to somewhere you can behold the beauty of nature combined with the ingenuity of man. In Kastraki, a village in the plains of Thessaly, near the tower of Kalabaka, lies a stone forest of more than 20 enormous rock pillars. These rocks towers hundreds of metres into the sky. Their peaks are crowned by monasteries with wooden galleries and corniced roof tops. This is the Meteora of Greece, where unique natural rocks are combined with unbelievable human effort. Meteora, which the Greek word for "raised up above the earth", refers to this group of isolated rock pillars and to more than 30 monasteries built on them. The height of these rocks is 300 metres on the average. The highest is about 550 metres.
As you go nearer, the shadow of the towering rocks continue to lengthen. The landscape changes continuously as the sun casts different shadow from different angles.
In the winter, they give spectacular picture of stark and black pillars rising out of a white carpet of snow.Mountaineers who go up Metoera with special climbing kits would best understand the feat of the hermits who settled in the caves and rock fissures. It is difficult to understand how the monasteries were built up there at the top of the rocks. In 1925, a stair way was hacked out of the rock to make access more available.
Today, the monasteries on these peaks form one of the most interesting spots on the map of Greece. If you ever desire to see such a spectacular site, then visit the Meteora of Greece.
Meteora - Towering Rock Pillars, Greece