Athens: Meteora – Thermopylae, Private Tour (per group 1 to 7 per)

The Monastery of Great Meteoron, built on the most imposing rock, it’s the largest and most formal of the extant Meteora which occupies a commanding position among the monastic complex of Meteora. The Great Meteoron was founded shortly before the middle of the 14th century by Saint Athanasios the Meteorite, who was also its first founder and the first to organize a systematic monastic community. The Holy Monastery of Varlaam was named after its founder, the ascetic monk Varlaam who lived in a cave as a hermit and built a chapel on top of a rock. In the 16th century, two brothers, Theophanis and Nektarios Apsaradas who were both monks, enlarged the chapel and built a monastery. Visit the historic Thermopylae, the location where the battle between armies’ took place, between ancient Greeks and Persians that changed the course of European history. See the battlefield, the statue of King Leonidas and visit the museum.