Next place we visited was the cliffside monasteries of Meteora. The area is covered with huge freestanding rock monoliths, many having monasteries built on top of them. Monks began settling in the caves of the region as early as the 11th century, with the first monasteries constructed on the cliffs in the 14th century to protect them from Turkish attacks. The first picture is a distant shot of one of the monasteries, with the second picture showing it up close.