Private Day Trip to Meteora-Thermopylae from Athens/Pireaus

The monasteries are ‘floating in the air’, as its name means, on a series of spectacular outcrops of this region that are as much as 400 meters high. They are formed of eroded conglomerate and riddled with caves that provided shelter for the hermits who first settled there. Meteora is now the biggest and most important group of monasteries in Greece after those in Mount Athos. While monasteries in Meteora are first attested in the early 14th century, its history can be traced back to the 11th century when monks first settled there. Its sublime beauty cannot be conveyed in words or pictures. The soaring monoliths of more than four hundred metres in height seem to have been expressly created by God for the bold ascetics who would seek the ideal place in this tranquil setting to devote themselves wholly to prayer.

It derives its name from its hot sulphur springs.The Hot Gates is "the place of hot springs" Thermopylae is world-famous for the battle that took place there between the Greek forces (notably the Spartans) and the invading Persian forces, commemorated by Simonides in the famous epitaph, "Go tell the Spartans, stranger passing by, That here obedient to their laws we lie." Thermopylae is the only land route large enough to bear any significant traffic between Lokris and Thessaly. This passage from north to south along the east coast of the Balkan peninsula requires use of the pass and for this reason Thermopylae has been the site of several battles.