Meteora is a UNESCO World Heritage site

The Meteora (in Greek means "suspended in the air") is the largest and most important complex of monasteries in all of Greece, after those to Mount Athos. The monasteries are built on spectacular natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Penios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece.

In the 14th century, Greek Orthodox hermits and holy men built the monasteries as religious safe havens, isolated from the conflict and civil strife occuring in so many other parts of the country.

Monasteries were systematically built on top of the nearly-inaccessible peaks in the 14th century as places of refuge when the area came under attack by the Turks. By the end of the 15th century, there were 24 Meteora monasteries. They flourished during the 15th and 16th centuries, but by the 17th century the monastic population had dwindled to one-third of its original size.

Only six of the monasteries remain today, tended by a few monks and nuns.