These monasteries are located in Meteora, Greece and the word ‘Meteora’ literally means ’suspended in air’ as they are built high on top of cliffs and mountains. There are a total of 24 monasteries found here and if you wanted to visit them, then you better not be afraid of heights. There are NO steps leading to these monasteries, not to mention lifts or elevators. The main means of access? Through a net that was hung over a hook and hoisted up by rope and a manual windlass to towers overhanging the scary chasm beneath. Monks descended in the nets or on wooden ladders to the valleys below to grow potatoes, corn and grapes. Wonder if they have WIFI there…

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A new young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript.

So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up. In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says, “We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son.”

So, he goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held as archives in a locked vault that hasn’t been opened for hundreds of years.
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