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Meteora Monasteries - Stock Photos
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| In the central region of Thessaly, about a five-hour
drive northwest of Athens, rise the aptly named Meteora -- slate-gray
cones and buttelike outcroppings reaching as high as 2,000 feet. They
appear in their crookedness to be staggering, as if fatigued from
surviving eons of tectonic tumult. The rocks themselves might merit
a visit for their curiosity value, but the Byzantine monasteries that
top them have made them one of Romaic Greece's most spectacular sights.
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| Though monks seeking respite from temporal woes began
establishing themselves in sketes, or retreats, on lesser peaks in
the tenth century, legend has it that the first anchorite to reach
the highest summit -- that of the Great Meteoron -- to found a proper
monastery did so on the back of an eagle in 1340. Within 200 years
twenty-four idiorrhythmic, or self-governing, monasteries crowned
the Meteora. By that time all of the Byzantine Empire had fallen to
the Turks, but in keeping with Islamic tolerance of monotheistic faiths,
the sultans permitted these religious communities to thrive. Today
six monasteries (including two convents) are still functioning and
may be visited, using either the town of Kalambaka or the village
of Kastraki as a base. |
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