The area of Meteora was originally settled by monks who lived in caves within the rocks during the 11th Century. As the times became more unsure during an age of Turkish occupation, brigandry and lawlessness, they climbed higher and higher up the rock face until they were living on the inaccessible peaks where they were able to build by bringing material and people up with ladders and baskets and build the first monasteries. This was also how the monasteries were reached until the 1920's. Now there are roads, pathways and steps to the top. There are still examples of these baskets which are used for bringing up provisions. During the Turkish occupation it was the monasteries which kept alive the Hellenic culture and traditions and were not only religious centres but academic and artistic as well. It is believed that were it not for the monasteries, Hellenic culture would have disappeared and modern Greece would be a reflection of the Ottoman empire with little knowledge of its roots and history. The monasteries attracted not only the deeply religious, but the philosophers, poets, painters and the deep thinkers of Greece. Today only six monasteries are active. My photo shows Varlaam monastery which was founded in 1517 by Theophanis and Nektarios Apsaradas from Ioanina though the first to establish a monastery here was an ascetic anchorite named Varlaam. The monastery houses an important collection of relics, intricately carved wooden crosses, icons, embroidered epitaphoi (grave cloths) and many other ecclesiastical treasures.