Meteora Rock Formations (Sandstone Pillars)

Rising abruptly from the plain of Thessaly near the town of Kalambaka in the Trikala regional unit, the rock pillars of Meteora are among the strangest landscapes in Greece. The name means roughly 'suspended in the air', and the description fits: smooth-sided columns, domes and blunt towers of grey-brown stone stand scattered above the Pineios river valley, with the Pindus mountains forming the backdrop to the west. The heights vary, with the tallest pillars reaching several hundred metres above the valley floor.

The rock is a conglomerate, a natural concrete of pebbles and sand laid down by rivers and a large delta when the area lay beneath an ancient lake or sea tens of millions of years ago. Earthquakes and uplift later cracked the mass, and wind, rain and frost carved the fissures into separate pillars. The result has a vertical, almost sculpted look that makes the formations appear much stranger in person than in photographs.

The landscape is inseparable from its monastic history. From around the eleventh century hermits sought out the caves and ledges, and by the fourteenth century monks had begun building on the summits, hauling materials and people up with nets, ropes and ladders. Stairs cut into the rock arrived only in the twentieth century. Twenty-four monasteries are said to have existed at the peak; six remain active today, and ruined hermitages can still be spotted high in the rock walls. UNESCO inscribed Meteora as a World Heritage Site in 1988, recognising both the natural and cultural value of the place.

The Great Meteoron and the other monasteries sit on separate pillars. Visitors have several ways to look at the formations. Roads link the monasteries, a number of marked footpaths cross the rocks and the old monks' trails climb from Kalambaka and the nearby village of Kastraki, and a number of viewpoints, for example on the road to the Monastery of Roussanou, make good places for sunset. Sunrise and sunset change the colour of the stone from grey to gold and rust, and morning mist often wraps the base of the pillars. Climbers and walkers also use the area, and anyone visiting should keep in mind that the monasteries are working religious communities with dress rules and weekly closing days that differ from one to the next.

Spring and autumn are the most comfortable seasons; midsummer is hot, and the roads and monastery visits get crowded, especially around midday.