Meteora

Sandstone and conglomerate pillars standing out of the Thessalian plain, laid down as a river delta and pushed up about 60 million years ago, then split along vertical faults and weathered into towers. From the fourteenth century, under Simeon Uroš, monks went up them to get away from Turkish raids and built twenty-four monasteries on the summits. The question everyone asks is how, and the answer is bad: long ladders lashed together, and nets. Goods went up in the nets and so did people, and the story that the ropes were only replaced when the Lord let them break is the sort of thing that gets repeated because it is almost plausible. Rock-cut steps replaced the ladders in the 1920s. Six monasteries survive and four are active, including Great Meteoron from 1356 and Saint Stephen, a convent since 1961. UNESCO listed it in 1988. Trikala, Greece.