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More than any other site in Greece, I wanted to see Meteora. I couldn't see how, or why, these buildings were placed at the top of some equally bizarre land formations. Now I know a little more. These monasteries are not part of "antiquity", but were built around 1400 AD. Since there were 20+ built, and it took a while to climb up there. And it had to be done secretly, in the night time. The monasteries were built in defiance of the take over and 400 years of occupation of the Ottoman Turks, who promptly and methodically destroyed every vestige of the Greek Orthodox faith in Greece. The monks, in response, built and hid in these cliff top dwellings. Now days, only 6 are still functioning as monasteries. WE visited 2 of them. |
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