The municipality of Meteora proceeded to upgrade the lights of the Meteora rocks, turning night into day and giving a unique feeling to both the visitor to the impressive geological phenomenon and the local.
In a statement to the Athenian Macedonian News Agency, the mayor of Meteora, Lefteris Avramopoulos, emphasizes the following: “Meteora does not need lights to impress. They only need respect. With the new lighting, we did not change their appearance, but we attribute the power of human creation to the night landscape. Cleaner, calmer, closer to what it really is: a miracle, night and day.”
Lights at Meteora offer millions a different perspective
Meteora, Greece’s stalagmite-like hanging rocks that reach into the sky amid a backdrop of craggy mountains and red-roofed monasteries, has become the second most popular destination in mainland Greece, with authorities now planning further tourist development in the region.
About 2.5 million people visit Meteora each year, mostly from the United States, Europe, China, South Korea, Japan and the Balkans. Before the war in Ukraine, many Russians visited as well due to the area’s religious importance, which is second only to Mount Athos regarding religious centers of Orthodox monasticism.
Meteora, which in Greek means “suspending in the air,” is one of the 18 Greek monuments that have been listed by UNESCO in the World Cultural Heritage list and is a paradise for lovers of nature and spiritual journeys.
The home to one of the largest complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries
Mountain climbers who want to test their mettle against the sheer vertical walls of the rocks make the pilgrimage to Meteora, alongside religious pilgrims who are amazed by the treasures of the monasteries that are perched on the cliffs.
Emerging about twenty five million years ago as part of the elevated seabed which was thrust into the sky as the result of massive tectonic movements, the Meteora rocks have created a landscape that looks like something out of a fairy tale, albeit perhaps a scary one.
Now home to one of the largest, and certainly the most precipitously built, complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries, Meteora is second in importance only to Mount Athos in religious centers of Orthodox monasticism.
The six (of an original twenty-four) monasteries are built on the immense natural pillars and towering rock outcrops that dominate the local area. The rock formations have been a site of worship for the people of the area as far back as the Turkish advances that were made in the area.
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Related: The Unique Beauty of Meteora, Greece
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