Columns Of The Sky - The Eastern Orthodox monasteries of Meteora

[psaltis]

During my recent visit to Greece, a cousin of mine asked me what I would like to see. The single one place that immediately came to mind was to visit Meteora, which has been on my bucket list for over 40 years. "Well," he said, "let's make it happen!". Two days later he picked me up and we drove for almost five hours and covered 380km (235 miles) to visit this beautiful and amazing place. We spent two days visiting the different Eastern Orthodox monasteries and enjoying the fantastic natural beauty of the area. A total of 24 monasteries were originally built but only six remain today.

Meteora is known for its breathtaking scenery. Theories upon the creation of this natural phenomenon are associated with the geological movements that have occurred several geological periods ago. Scientists believe that these pillars were formatted about 60 million years ago! Meteora's surreal landscape houses the oldest known man-made structure on earth which dates as far back as 23,000 years ago. It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988 because of the outstanding architecture and beauty of the complex, in addition to its religious and artistic significance.

My initial intent was to visit and visually and spiritually experience this historical site which I have come to admire over the years through many books and also images of its amazing landscapes and scenery. However, on this trip, I also had the privilege to capture and produce a series of images which I am sharing here so you too can experience the scenic landscapes of Meteora. I hope you enjoy the images as much as I did in creating them. This series is appropriately named “Columns Of The Sky”.

To make this set an even dozen, I am also including a sunset shot from Cape Sounion at the southern most tip of the Greek mainland.

I have attached lower resolution images in this post, but I would suggest viewing the full-resolution images which I have posted in this online photo gallery.

 

[Jeff15]

I have been to Greece many times but not here, nice shots...

 

[ndcisiv]

These are stunning to me. Having never seen anything quite like it in person, it's hard to believe somebody built them. Thanks for sharing them.

 

[jeffashman]

This is a beautiful set, and the ones taken with the iPhone XR are proof that a phone camera is more than capable of taking wonderful photos. My favorite is the seventh one, the panorama. Wonderful!

 

[joayne]

Amazing Images! Really beautifully done.