Igoumenitsa - Tour to Meteora

Depart from the port of Igoumenitsa heading to Meteora.The word Meteora literally means “suspended in mid-air” which is probably the best way to describe the sublime merging of geological drama and religious spirituality.

The amazingly imposing rocks of Meteora were formed about 60 million years ago and evidence dates human presence there as far as back as 50.000 years, Christian hermitage probably started around the 12^th century, but it was not until the 14^th century that these precariously perched monasteries began to emerge.

By this time, older forms of one-man ascetic hermitages had given way to more organizes groups of monks, who formed orders and proceeded with the seemingly imposible task of constructing buildings on these steep and inaccessible peaks. Typically, each monastery would comprise of a church ,cloistered living quarters of cells, a refectory ,a library and in some cases, a treasury. For many centuries,t ravelers and monks had to be hauled up to these remote sanctuaries in a basket or net at the end of a rope. Of the six monasteries still active today,Great Meteoron and Varlaam are the two largest and most visited. After our 2-hour visit to Meteora we continue with lunch and later on we rejoin our bus in order to return to Igoumenitsa port.