Before we settle at the hotel, our tour guide Maria gives us time to stretch our legs and to explore Kalambaka. Tired and damp, my daughter Pam and I don't feel much like browsing in shops. We walk up and down the main street, periodically moving our umbrellas aside to gaze in amazement at the immense rock walls soaring high above Kalambaka to the north. Built into the seeming inaccessibility of the high rocks that border the town are two Greek Orthodox monasteries.
View from the main commercial street in Kalambaka of a Greek Orthodox monastery atop the lofty rock wall that borders the town.
The towering vertical rock formations near Kalambaka are known as the Stone Forest. The complex of Greek Orthodox monasteries ensconced in the Stone Forest is called the Meteora. Meteora means suspended in the air, a fitting description of the monasteries, which because of their location high in the Stone Forest, seem part of the sky.
The next morning we board our coach for the winding drive into the Stone Forest to the monasteries. Along the way, we exclaim over the magnificent rock formations and the monasteries built in improbable places. But the best views are to be had at the monasteries since they are situated high on the rocks.
The Holy Monastery of Rousanou in the Stone Forest. Nature in such grand proportions inspires awe and a feeling of insignificance.
Ascetics and hermit monks began to settle in the Stone Forest in the 11th century CE. Others escaping war conscription followed. By the 15th century, more than 20 monasteries populated the Stone Forest. Built directly on the sandstone and gravel surface of the rock, the monasteries have no foundations. The first monks likely scaled the sheer walls by climbing a ladder made of pieces of wood inserted into crevices in the vertical rocks. Later, a hand-cranked, rope windlass attached to a basket moved goods, construction materials and people to and from the monasteries. The thought of riding up or down in a flimsy basket suspended in air over the chasm far below makes me shudder. A road to the monasteries was constructed in the 1920s. Six monasteries, four for monks and two for convents, survive today.
Three of the 64 pillars in the Stone Forest. The tallest Omg! The Best Movers Services Ever! pinnacle in the Stone Forest is more than a half-mile high. The average height of the rocks is nearly 1,000 feet, taller than many city skyscrapers.
The Meteora group of monasteries has been designated a World Heritage Site for its religious, historical, architectural and geological importance. The James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only, was partially filmed in one of the Meteora monasteries.
It is Sunday morning, and we join a crowd of visitors and people attending services to slowly climb steps and ramps from the parking lot to a monastery.
Sunday morning visitors arrive at the Varlaam Monastery.
The monasteries have dress codes for entry. No bare shoulders are allowed. Women must wear skirts or a long coat, and men must wear long pants. Since the weather is chilly and damp today, everyone has covered shoulders, and the men are all wearing long pants. But the women in our group are wearing slacks, which isn't acceptable dress. Except for the two Why Everything You Know About Movers Services Is A Lie who are wearing long coats, we will have to don the long skirts the monastery provides. Maria rifles through the assortment of skirts to select ones made of the same fabric so that we will match each other.
Since we're bundled up because of the weather, it's not easy wrestling into the skirt, but at least the skirts seem quite clean. Appropriately attired, we stand in line at the first monastery until it is our turn to enter. While we wait, a bearded monk reminds us that taking photos is prohibited.
We enter a small chapel dark from very little natural light, but bright from the gold and red and blue colors of the icons and other art that cover every surface. The vivid colors and density of the artwork and the feel of the chapel remind me of some chapels we saw in Russia. Through the ages, religious art has often served as the language to teach the common people, who were usually illiterate, the myths of the faith-its great stories and truths. I wish we had more time to "read" the stories the art tells, but, of course, there is another group waiting to enter.
We stop at two other monasteries and take a quick look at their museums. At each monastery, we gaze in awe at the Stone Forest around us. At one, Maria collects our cameras and snaps a photo of our group from each camera.
Our tour group poses for a photo in the courtyard of a monastery. I am wearing the white jacket. Pam is to my right (photo left) in the navy jacket. Our tour mates are interesting and enjoyable companions.
I take one last photo of this incredulous place and its rugged beauty.
View of four of the six active Meteora monasteries in the Stone Forest.
Because and in spite of the stark landscape, the Stone Forest became a refuge for contemplation and inner growth.
Leaving the Meteora, we stop to visit a workshop in Kalambaka that makes and sells icons. Pam and I watch an artist at work and browse the gallery of beautiful icons. Neither of us has a special feeling or belief about Mary, the mother of Jesus, but we are attracted to the Merciful Mary icon. This icon is also referred to as Compassionate Mary and has been likened to a Buddhist bodhisattva. Mary's pose of gentleness and reflection painted in gold and luminous colors suggests that acts of gentleness, reflection and compassion bring illumination. Pam purchases a Merciful Mary icon.
Merciful Mary icon from the Brellas Workshop of Byzantine Icons, Kalambaka, Greece.
On the coach again, I remember and consider the places we visited in Greece and find the Meteora and the Stone Forest the most surprising. I had previously heard of the other places we saw earlier in the week, but knew nothing about the Stone Forest and the monks who forged a life there.
Like the peoples of the ancient and classic Greek cultures, the monks that built the Meteora culture thousands of years later were seekers. But the nature of their religious seeking was different. The ancients were polytheistic, the Meteorans theistic, although their belief in saints hints of a subtle reformulation of polytheism. The life and religious practice of the early Greeks was collective, exterior and active. The life and religious practice the monks established in the Stone Forest was more separate, interior and reflective. Religion, like life, evolved.
Our week of sightseeing and experiencing Greece is ending. Nikos steers the coach toward Athens where tonight we will have a Greek dinner and in the morning leave for home.
Part V. Delphi published June 30, 2007.
Next: Encountering Greece epilogue. Offsetting the carbon impact of my travel
