Meteora

In the 9th century AD, an ascetic group of hermit monks moved up to the ancient pinnacles; they were the first people to inhabit Metéora since the Neolithic Era. They lived in hollows and fissures in the rock towers, some as high as 1800 ft (550m) above the plain. This great height, combined with the sheerness of the cliff walls, kept away all but the most determined visitors. Initially, the hermits led a life of solitude, meeting only on Sundays and special days to worship and pray in a chapel built at the foot of a rock known as Dhoupiani.

The exact date of the establishment of the monasteries is unknown. By the late 11th and early 12th centuries, a rudimentary monastic state had formed called the Skete of Stagoi and was centered around the still-standing church of Theotokos (mother of God). By the end of the 12th century, an ascetic community had flocked to Metéora.

In 1344, Athanasios Koinovitis from Mount Athos brought a group of followers to Metéora. From 1356 to 1372, he founded the great Meteoron monastery on Broad Rock, which were perfect for the monks; they were safe from political upheaval and had complete control of the entry to the monastery. The only means of reaching it was by climbing a long ladder, which was drawn up whenever the monks felt threatened.

At the end of the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire's 800-year reign over northern Greece was being increasingly threatened by Turkish raiders who wanted control over the fertile plain of Thessaly. The hermit monks, seeking a retreat from the expanding Turkish occupation, found the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora to be an ideal refuge. More than 20 monasteries were built, beginning in the 14th century. Six remain today.
Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Arnold for the great card of Meterora!

Sent: 3 June 2016   Received: 23 June 2016  Travelled: 20 days

Acropolis

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on an extremely rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον (akron, "highest point, extremity") and πόλις (polis, "city"). Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification.

While there is evidence that the hill was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles (c. 495 – 429 BC) in the fifth century BC who coordinated the construction of the site's most important buildings including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike. The Parthenon and the other buildings were seriously damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians in the Morean War when the Parthenon was being used for gunpowder storage and was hit by a cannonball.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to Arnold who was in Greece recently for holidays!

Sent: 3 June 2016   Received: 23 June 2016   Travelled: 20 days

Parthenon, Athens

The Parthenon  is a former temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the peak of its power. It was completed in 438 BC although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important surviving building of Classical Greece, generally considered the zenith of the Doric order. Its decorative sculptures are considered some of the high points of Greek art. The Parthenon is regarded as an enduring symbol of Ancient Greece, Athenian democracy and western civilization, and one of the world's greatest cultural monuments. The Greek Ministry of Culture is currently carrying out a program of selective restoration and reconstruction to ensure the stability of the partially ruined structure.

The Parthenon itself replaced an older temple of Athena, which historians call the Pre-Parthenon or Older Parthenon, that was destroyed in the Persian invasion of 480 BC. The temple is archaeoastronomically aligned to the Hyades. While a sacred building dedicated to the city's patron goddess, the Parthenon was actually used primarily as a treasury. For a time, it served as the treasury of the Delian League, which later became the Athenian Empire. In the final decade of the sixth century AD, the Parthenon was converted into a Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

After the Ottoman conquest, it was turned into a mosque in the early 1460s. On 26 September 1687, an Ottoman ammunition dump inside the building was ignited by Venetian bombardment. The resulting explosion severely damaged the Parthenon and its sculptures. From 1800 to 1803,Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin removed some of the surviving sculptures with the alleged permission of the Ottoman Empire. These sculptures, now known as the Elgin Marbles or the Parthenon Marbles, were sold in 1816 to the British Museum in London, where they are now displayed. Since 1983 (on the initiative of Culture Minister Melina Mercouri), the Greek government has been committed to the return of the sculptures to Greece.

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to my dear friend Simona for the lovely card from her travels.

Sent: 3 May 2016    Received: 24 May 2016   Travelled:

Meteora

The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, pronounced [mɛˈtɛoɾɐ], literally "middle of the sky", "suspended in the air" or "in the heavens above" — etymologically related to meteorology) is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos.[1] The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List

Source: Wikipedia

Thanks to dear friend Martina who sends this card from Macedonia after her Greek holiday :)

Sent: 12 June 2014   Received: 7 July 2014   Travelled: 25 days

Greek Cats

Thanks very much to Angeliki for sending this card that has been

on my "wishlist" for a while, showing cats waiting for the catch of

the day by the local fishermen :)

Sent: 26 October 2015   Received: 24 November 2015  Travelled: 29 days

Mykonos

The Cyclades are a Pre-Greek island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around (κυκλάς) the sacred island of Delos. The Cyclades is where the native Greek breed of cat (the Aegean cat) originated.

Source:Wikipedia

Thanks to Marles from swap-bot for this beautiful card of her cruise.
Sent: 5 Oct 2015    REceieved: 19 October   Travelled: 14 days

Greek cat

     

A beautiful Greek card arrived showing a cat on the steps.
I can just imagine an old lady coming home from the market and stepping into the cute doorway into her home. Thanks to Despina for this postcard. I love this cat card because it isn't the typical cute cat on a bed but one that's almost camouflaged and watching the world go by.
Sent:26 April 2015 Received:22 May 2015 Travelled:26 ays

Rhodes,Greece

Historically, Rhodes was famous worldwide for the Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Medieval Old Town of the City of Rhodes has been declared a World Heritage Site. Today, it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Europe.

Thanks to Sebastian for this beautiful card from Rhodes!

Sent: 30 September 2014   Received: 31 October 2014   Travelled: 31 days

Crete

Crete! 

I seem to get Crete postcards as a surprise on postcrossing, which I think is 

one of the favourite vacation spots for affluent European travellers. Coincidentally

Crete came onto my television recently on a documentary about the existence

of Atlantis. Crete was the center of Minoan civilization and is the earliest

known existence of European civilization. It was quite possible that when Plato

wrote the story of Atlantis as a morality tale, he based it on the Minoans. 

Thanks to Pascale for this beautiful traditional Cretan dress card! (postcrossing)

Sent: 3 September 2014   Received: 29 September 2014   Travelled: 26 days

Crete #2

 

Agios Nikolaos is a coastal town on the Greek islands of Crete, lying eas of the island's capital Heraklion, north of the town of Ierapetra and west of the town of Sitia.

 

Postcrossing card sent by Lindsey, thank you for the postcard from your vacation!

 

Sent:??

Received: 31 December 2013

Greek map

Thank you Despina for the lovely map postcard of Greece!

I've only visited Thessaloniki and there's so many more wonderful places to visit and explore, sadly I can only read about it in travel blogs or watch an epic film :D

Sent: 29 May 2013

Crete, Greece

Crete is the largest island in Greece and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea separating the Aegean from the Libyan Sea.

 

Crete has a rich mythology mostly connected with the ancient Greek Gods but also connected with the Minoan civilization.

The Idaion cave at Mount Ida was the birthplace of the god Zeus. The Paximadia islands were the birthplace of the goddess Artemis and the god Apollo. Their mother, the goddess Leto, was worshipped at Phaistos. The goddess Athena bathed in Lake Voulismeni. The ancient Greek god Zeus launched a lightning bolt at a giant lizard that was threatening Crete. The lizard immediately turned to stone and became the island of Dia. The island can be seen from Knossos and it has the shape of a giant lizard. The islets of Lefkai were the result of a musical contest between the Sirens and the Muses. The Muses were so anguished to have lost that they plucked the feathers from the wings of their rivals; the Sirens turned white and fell into the sea at Aptera ("featherless") where they formed the islands in the bay that were called Lefkai (the islands of Souda and Leon).[43] Hercules, in one of his labors, took the Cretan bull to the Peloponnese. Europa and Zeusmade love at Gortys and conceived the Kings of the Minoan civilization, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon, and Minos.

The labyrinth of the palace of Knossos has the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur where the Minotaur was slain by Theseus. Icarus andDaedalus were captives of King Minos and crafted wings to escape. After death King Minos became a judge of the dead in Hades, whileRhadamanthys the ruler of the Elysian fields.

Thank you Paulina for this beautiful card from you vacation!

Sent: 9 August 2013

Received: 3 Sept 2013

Travelled: 25 days

Delphi, Greece

Temple of Apollo

 

Delphi  is both an archaeological site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. The site of Delphi was believed to be determined by Zeus when he sought to find the centre of Grandmother Earth (or Gaia). He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the omphalos, or navel of Gaia was found.

Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and became a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew Python, a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python (derived from the verb pythein, "to rot") is claimed by some to be the original name of the site in recognition of Python which Apollo defeated.[3]The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa.

Thank you Anna for this amazing card!

 

Sent: 3 March 2013
Received: 21 March 2013
Travelled: 18 days

Athens

1.Acropolis

2. The Guards

3. The National Library

4. The Panathinaiko stadium

 

Thank you Katerina for this beautiful card from Greece!

Sent: 8 November 2012
Received: 24 November 2012
Travelled: 16 days