Login or Register for Walkopedia

Meteora

Greece

Walkopedia Magazine

See our latest online magazine:

  • Mustang in Nepal – the world’s second-best walk?
Walkopedia rating89
(Top 100)
Beauty
32
Natural interest
 17
Human interest
 16
Charisma
 34
Negative points
 (10)
Total rating
 89
Note: Negs: tourism and crowds; some ugly modernity

 Vital statistics

Length:
Day walks
Level of Difficulty: Moderate

Key information: Meteora

  • Meteora is, by any measure, a captivating area, combining magnificent scenery of vast towers of heavily eroded sandstone with the mystique of a long history of Christian significance.
  • Walk along ancient routes through this superb landscape, with its ancient Byzantine monasteries perched above fearsome cliffs or teetering on rocky spires.
  • Beware: heavy tourism can ruin what should be an outstanding experience. Quite a lot of walks are overgrown, and none are well marked. Choose your walk, and timing, with care.



Walk summary

Meteora is a truly remarkable place and one of the world's strangest: a forest of vast sandstone buttes and spires topped by ancient Byzantine monasteries, rising clear of the plains of northern Thessaly. This numinous place has the capacity to move you profoundly, irrespective of your beliefs or lack of them.

Meteora was once seabed. When crushed and forced upward by tectonic movement, the hard agglomerate sandstone composed of smooth stones and silt from ancient rivers cracked and subsequently eroded, leaving today's towers with their enormous, smoothly sculpted cliffs. Their greys are transformed to glowing ocres at sunset.

Hermits made their homes in caves and under overhangs in Meteora's cliffs from the eleventh century or earlier. Monastic communities evolved, in part as a result of increasing pressure from the marauding Turks, built on rocky towers, with access only by ladder or in baskets pulled up on ropes to heights of several hundred metres. Meteora means suspended in the air in Greek; seldom has a name been so fitting.

In its prime, Meteora had 24 monasteries and nunneries; only six are now active, the rest in ruins and often inaccessible.Monasteries were bombed and artwork stolen during the Second World War, and the local town of Kalambaka was razed to the ground in reprisal against partisan activity. These monuments are now, deservedly, a World Heritage Site.

Their fame means that the monasteries are now overwhelmed by tourism, with buses locked on the access roads and huge crowds in the most famous of them. It can be thoroughly depressing.

Fortunately, you can walk away from all this along ancient paths between these secluded communities. These trails are generally not well signed or maintained (or indeed mapped), and you can find yourself struggling through thick undergrowth. But they have huge atmosphere and can be thrilling. Walking on tracks and lesser roads can thus be a good option, if a bit less atmospheric. You need to choose your route carefully, to avoid the worst horrors of modern tourism; the trails in the northwest and east are perhaps the best areas for the serious walker, and the ascent of the Holy Spirit rock described here by William Mackesy is astonishing.

William Mackesy's account of this walk

Meteora must be one of the world's strangest places, a “forest” of vast sandstone buttes and spires topped by ancient Byzantine monasteries, rising clear of the plains of northern Thessaly.

This area was once seabed; when crushed and forced upward by tectonic movement, the hard agglomerate sandstone – composed of smooth stones and silt from ancient rivers – cracked and subsequently eroded, leaving today's towers, with their enormous, smoothly sculpted cliffs, standing up to 550 metres above the nearby valley. Their greys are transformed to glowing ocres at sunset. They are reminiscent of, and indeed were formed by a similar process to, Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the Olgas in central Australia.

Hermits made their homes in caves and under overhangs in Meteora's cliffs from.....

Read More

Other accounts: share your experiences

Your comments on this walk, your experiences and suggestions, and your photos are very welcome. Where appropriate, you will be credited for your contribution.

Responsible travel matters, a lot. How you travel will make a real difference - for better or worse. PLEASE consider this when making plans. Read more

Research essentials

Here are some essential tools for your travel research:

Finding flights, organising travel

Accommodation

Equipment & Clothing

Books and Maps

If you enjoy and value our site, please help us (at no cost to yourself) by using these links.

And by telling friends about Walkopedia.

Practical information for walking in Greece, Meteora

We have a lot of helpful practical information and tips about this walk, covering everything from the best books and maps, to timing and weather, geting there, possible problems, whether you need a guide and where to find them, and useful websites. This section is only open to members.

Membership is FREE AND JOINING TAKES 30 SECONDS. To login or sign up click here

Add your experiences, suggestions and photos. We would be delighted to receive your writing and ideas (which will be attributed appropriately where published).

See our Fun page for some entertainment and to read about our travel writing and other competitions.

Anyone planning an expedition to this place should see further important information about this walk.

Responsible travel matters, a lot. How you travel will make a real difference - for better or worse. PLEASE consider this when making plans. Read more