Grecia Monastero in Tessaglia detto la Meteore / Patriarca di Costantinopoli in funzione e da viaggio

Title

Grecia Monastero in Tessaglia detto la Meteore / Patriarca di Costantinopoli in funzione e da viaggio

Description

Top view shows one of the Meteora monasteries near the city of Kalambaka in Thessaly, Greece. They are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The name Metéora is derived from meteorizo, which means “to lift up”. This name describes the location of the monasteries, which were built on high sandstone cliffs and sometimes seem to float in hazy air. Below picture of two monks.

ca. 1820

Artist

Anonymus

Historical Description

Greece is considered the cradle of Western civilisation, being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, Western literature, historiography, political science, major scientific and mathematical principles, Western drama and the Olympic Games. From the eighth century B.C., the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as poleis (singular polis), which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Philip of Macedon united most of the Greek mainland in the fourth century BC, with his son Alexander the Great rapidly conquering much of the ancient world, from the eastern Mediterranean to India. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century B.C., becoming an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor, the Byzantine Empire, which adopted the Greek language and culture. The Greek Orthodox Church, which emerged in the first century A.D., helped shape modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World. After falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, Greece emerged as a modern nation state in 1830 following a war of independence.