Meaning ‘suspended in air’ the name Meteora includes the entire
rock community of 24 monasteries. There were no steps and the
main access to the monasteries was by means of a net that was
hitched over a hook and hoisted up by rope and a hand cranked
windlass to winch towers overhanging the chasm. Monks descended
in the nets or on retractable wooden ladders up to 40m long to
the fertile valleys below to grow grapes, corn and potatoes.
Studies suggest that the pinnacles are formed about 60 million
years ago during the Tertiary Period . Weathering and
earthquakes then shaped them into their present shape. Although
it is unknown when Metéora was established, as early as the 11th
century AD hermit monks were believed to be living among the
caves and cutouts in the rocks.