Source: Big Stock Photo
The Meteora mountain peaks in Thessaly, Greece
See another image of Meteora from 1938
The Meteora mountains are in the central, western section of Greece.
Historians are puzzled by how the first inhabitants got up the vertical faces of the mountains to create what later became the monasteries the area is famous for. The oldest recorded reference is a hermit named Barnabas using a cave for a dwelling place in AD 985. A monk named Athanasios began the monastery of Megalo Meteoro on a mountain pinnacle in 1382. At the peak of inhabitation on the mountainous area, there were 23 functioning monasteries, but by the 19th century only six were still in use, the others in various state of ruin. In 1920 stairs were cut into the rock to make the six monasteries accessible without using ropes and other lifting devices. Since then the area has been refurbished and repopulated by many monks and nuns.
View another contemporary color image of a Meteora mountain top monastery.