123-478: Download coordinates as: The Meteora ( / ˌ m ɛ t i ˈ ɔːr ə / ; Greek : Μετέωρα , pronounced [meˈteora] ) is a rock formation in the regional unit of Trikala , in Thessaly , in northwestern Greece , hosting one of the most prominent complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries , viewed locally as second in importance only to Mount Athos . Twenty-four monasteries were established atop
246-587: A Stockholm University study in 2011, these pilgrims visit the Holy Land to touch and see physical manifestations of their faith , confirm their beliefs in the holy context with collective excitation, and connect personally to the Holy Land. Pilgrims and the making of pilgrimages are common in many religions , including the faiths of ancient Egypt , Persia in the Mithraic period , India , China , and Japan . The Greek and Roman customs of consulting
369-475: A journey or search of moral or spiritual significance. Typically, it is a journey to a shrine or other location of importance to a person's beliefs and faith , although sometimes it can be a metaphorical journey into someone's own beliefs. Many religions attach spiritual importance to particular places: the place of birth or death of founders or saints, or to the place of their "calling" or spiritual awakening, or of their connection (visual or verbal) with
492-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
615-462: A constant threat to pilgrims and tourists of Meteora. An earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Richter Scale shook the rocks in 1954; miraculously the thin pillars still stand today. In 2005, a massive rock fell, closing the access road leading up to Meteora for days. Theopetra Cave is located 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from Kalambaka . Its uniqueness from an archeological perspective is that
738-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
861-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
984-469: A few days at a time; within a few years appointments were extended internationally, formally designated as "pilgrims", and scheduled for twice-yearly, week-long visits at each local congregation. International Bible Students Association (IBSA) pilgrims were excellent speakers, and their local talks were typically well-publicized and well-attended. Prominent Bible Students A. H. Macmillan and J. F. Rutherford were both appointed pilgrims before they joined
1107-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
1230-543: A historic or architectural tour rather than – or as well as – a religious experience. Under communist regimes, devout secular pilgrims visited locations such as the Mausoleum of Lenin , the Mausoleum of Mao Zedong and the Birthplace of Karl Marx . Such visits were sometimes state-sponsored. Sites such as these continue to attract visitors. The distinction between religious, cultural or political pilgrimage and tourism
1353-502: A journey is called a pilgrim. As a common human experience, pilgrimage has been proposed as a Jungian archetype by Wallace Clift and Jean Dalby Clift . Some research has shown that people who engage in pilgrimage walks enjoy biological, psychological, social, and spiritual therapeutic benefits. The Holy Land acts as a focal point for the pilgrimages of the Abrahamic religions of Judaism , Christianity , and Islam . According to
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#17327584067681476-527: A journey or procession. While many pilgrims travel toward a specific location, a physical destination is not always a necessity. One group of pilgrims in early Celtic Christianity were the Peregrinari Pro Christ , (Pilgrims for Christ), or "white martyrs", who left their homes to wander in the world. This form of pilgrimage, akin to the concept of " hajj " in Islam, which means "procession,"
1599-641: A magnet for travelers since medieval times. While Solomon's Temple stood, Jerusalem was the centre of the Jewish religious life and the site of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals of Passover , Shavuot and Sukkot , and all adult men who were able were required to visit and offer sacrifices ( korbanot ) at the Temple. After the destruction of the Temple, the obligation to visit Jerusalem and to make sacrifices no longer applied. The obligation
1722-527: A monk named Varlaam who scaled the rocks in 1350 and began construction on the monasteries . Varlaam built three churches by hoisting materials up the face of the cliffs. After Varlaam's death, the monastery was abandoned for two hundred years until two monk brothers, Theophanes and Nektarios Apsarades, came to the rock in the 16th century and began to rebuild the churches in October 1517. The two brothers from Ioannina spent twenty-two years hoisting materials to
1845-503: A single site contains records of two greatly significant cultural transitions: the replacement of Neanderthals by modern humans and later, the transition from hunting-gathering to farming after the end of the last Ice Age . The cave consists of an immense 500 square metres (5,400 sq ft) rectangular chamber at the foot of a limestone hill, which rises to the northeast above the village of Theopetra, with an entrance 17 metres (56 ft) wide by 3 metres (9.8 ft) high. It lies at
1968-654: A site of pilgrimage. The designated sites for pilgrimage are currently not accessible to the majority of Bahá'ís, as they are in Iraq and Iran respectively, and thus when Bahá'ís currently refer to pilgrimage, it refers to a nine-day pilgrimage which consists of visiting the holy places at the Bahá'í World Centre in northwest Israel in Haifa , Acre , and Bahjí . Places of pilgrimage in the Buddhist world include those associated with
2091-524: A strict, literalist interpretation of Islam and opposition to practices they consider innovations, such as shrine visitation. Ziyarat also includes the Ziyarat al-Imam, which refers specifically to the pilgrimage to the shrines of the Shia Imams, especially revered figures like Imam Ali and Imam Hussein . The Arba'in pilgrimage is the world's largest pilgrimage and largest annual public gathering in
2214-594: A variety of sacred and historically significant locations beyond Mecca. These include mosques, tombs, battlefields, mountains, caves, and other places where important spiritual or historical events in Islamic history took place. It holds deep spiritual significance for millions of Muslims around the world. One notable example is the Grand Magal of Touba , 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Dakar , Senegal. About four million pilgrims participate annually to celebrate
2337-524: Is a Shia Muslim religious observance that occurs forty days after the Day of Ashura . It commemorates the martyrdom of Husayn ibn Ali , the grandson of Muhammad , which falls on the 20th or 21st day of the month of Safar . Imam Husayn ibn Ali and 72 companions were killed by Yazid I 's army in the Battle of Karbala in 61 AH (680 CE ). Arba'een or forty days is also the usual length of mourning after
2460-497: Is a journey to a holy place, which can lead to a personal transformation, after which the pilgrim returns to their daily life. A pilgrim (from the Latin peregrinus ) is a traveler (literally one who has come from afar) who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journey (often on foot) to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system. Pilgrimages frequently involve
2583-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
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#17327584067682706-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
2829-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
2952-425: Is believed to have been constructed, like many of the other monasteries, in the 14th century. The cathedral is believed to have been built in the 16th century and later decorated in 1540. The name Rousanou is believed to come from the first group of monks who settled on the rock from Russia. The monastery sits on the elevation 484 meters. Lying in the middle of the site, visitors can see the other monasteries, as well as
3075-478: Is etymologically related to meteor . Beside the Pindos Mountains , in the western region of Thessaly , these unique and enormous columns of rock rise precipitously from the ground. But their unusual form is not easy to explain geologically. They are not volcanic plugs of hard igneous rock typical elsewhere, but the rocks are composed of a mixture of sandstone and conglomerate . The conglomerate
3198-419: Is not necessarily always clear or rigid. Pilgrimage could also refer symbolically to journeys, largely on foot, to places where the concerned person(s) expect(s) to find spiritual and/or personal salvation. In the words of adventurer-author Jon Krakauer in his book Into The Wild , Christopher McCandless was "a pilgrim perhaps" to Alaska in search of spiritual bliss. The main pilgrimage sites associated with
3321-423: Is one of the five pillars of Islam and a mandatory religious duty for Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by all adult Muslims who are physically and financially capable of undertaking the journey, and can support their family during their absence. The Hajj is one of the largest annual gatherings of people in the world. Since 2014, two or three million people have participated in
3444-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
3567-813: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Pilgrim A pilgrimage
3690-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
3813-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
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3936-599: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
4059-586: Is the most famous sea goddess in the Chinese southeastern sea area, Hong Kong , Macau and Taiwan . Mazu Pilgrimage is more likely as an event (or temple fair), pilgrims are called as "Xiang Deng Jiao" ( pinyin : xiāng dēng jiǎo, it means "lantern feet" in Chinese), they would follow the Goddess's (Mazu) palanquin from her own temple to another Mazu temple. By tradition, when the village Mazu palanquin passes,
4182-570: Is the uniformity of the sedimentary rock constituents deposited over millions of years leaving few signs of vertical layering, and the localised abrupt vertical weathering. Excavations and research have discovered petrified diatoms in Theopetra Cave , which have contributed to understanding the Palaeo-climate and climate changes . Radiocarbon dating evidences human presence dating back 50,000 years. The cave used to be open to
4305-580: The Convention of Constantinople (1881) , Thessaly was taken over by the Kingdom of Greece . In 1921, Queen Marie of Romania visited Meteora, becoming the first woman ever allowed to enter the Great Meteoron monastery. In the 1920s there was an improvement in the arrangements. Steps were cut into the rock, making the complex accessible via a bridge from the nearby plateau. During World War II
4428-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
4551-774: The Hajj annually. The mosques in Mecca and Medina were closed in February 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the hajj was permitted for only a very limited number of Saudi nationals and foreigners living in Saudi Arabia starting on 29 July. Another important place for Muslims is the city of Medina, the second holiest site in Islam, in Saudi Arabia, the final resting place of Muhammad in Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (The Mosque of
4674-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
4797-529: The Pantocrator , and the chapel of Panagia Doupiani. The monastery served as a resting place for pilgrims and quickly got its name of Anapausas (modern pronunciation anapafseos ), 'resting'. Being on such a narrow surface, the floors are connected through an interior staircase. St. Nicholas is honored on the second floor where the katholikon is located. On the third floor, there is the Holy Table and
4920-708: The apostles , saints and Christian martyrs , as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary . A popular pilgrimage journey is along the Way of St. James to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral , in Galicia , Spain, where the shrine of the apostle James is located. A combined pilgrimage was held every seven years in the three nearby towns of Maastricht , Aachen and Kornelimünster where many important relics could be seen (see: Pilgrimage of
5043-612: The five vices ." Eventually, however, Amritsar and Harmandir Sahib (the Golden Temple) became the spiritual and cultural centre of the Sikh faith, and if a Sikh goes on pilgrimage it is usually to this place. The Panj Takht (Punjabi: ਪੰਜ ਤਖ਼ਤ) are the five revered gurdwaras in India that are considered the thrones or seats of authority of Sikhism and are traditionally considered a pilgrimage. Mazu , also spelled as Matsu,
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5166-573: The gods at local oracles , such as those at Dodona or Delphi , both in Greece , are widely known. In Greece , pilgrimages could either be personal or state-sponsored. The Eleusinian mysteries included a pilgrimage. The procession to Eleusis began at the Athenian cemetery Kerameikos and from there the participants walked to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, Hierá Hodós ). In
5289-465: The monastery of Varlaam , which was reputed to house the finger of St. John and the shoulder blade of St. Andrew . Access to the monasteries was originally (and deliberately) difficult, requiring either long ladders latched together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people. This required quite a leap of faith – the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only "when the Lord let them break". In
5412-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
5535-462: The " hestia " (kitchen), an old refectory that has since become a museum, and an assortment of rooms with different purposes. These include workrooms for paintings, embroidery, incense-making, and needlework. The church's interior was decorated with frescoes on the inside for a short period after 1545. However, During the World wars , the monasteries were bombed heavily and ransacked in the belief that
5658-454: The 16th century this was one of the last six monasteries still atop the Meteora. The Monastery of St. Stephen is located on a plateau-like structure. The original monastery was believed to have been built in the 14th century, however, a new katholikon was built in 1798 making it the newest of all the meteorite structures. The monastery is made up of many buildings including new katholikon,
5781-510: The 16th century, there were 24 monasteries at Meteora in Greece. They were created to serve monks and nuns following the teachings of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Much of the architecture of these buildings is Athonite in origin. Today there are six still functioning, while the remainder are largely in ruin. Perched onto high cliffs, they are now accessible by staircases and pathways cut into the rock formations. Traditionally,
5904-422: The 24 historic monasteries of Meteora are listed as follows. Coordinates are also given for some sites. The list is primarily sourced from Vlioras (2017), with some additional notes from Provatakis (2006). Other sites ( sketes , hermitages , rocks, etc.) include: The Holy Monastery of Great Meteoron is the oldest and largest of the monasteries of Meteora. The monastery is believed to have been built just before
6027-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
6150-645: The Firouzabad ruins sixty kilometres south of Shiraz in the province of Pars . Atash Behram ("Fire of victory") is the highest grade of fire temple in Zoroastrianism . It has 16 different "kinds of fire", that is, fires gathered from 16 different sources. Currently there are 9 Atash Behram, one in Yazd, Iran and the rest in Western India . They have become a pilgrimage destination. In India
6273-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
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#17327584067686396-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
6519-495: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
6642-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
6765-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
6888-492: The Holy Land, to the places associated with the Lord's passion, death and resurrection. They go to Rome, the city of the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, and also to Compostela, which, associated with the memory of Saint James, has welcomed pilgrims from throughout the world who desire to strengthen their spirit with the Apostle's witness of faith and love. Pilgrimages were, and are, also made to Rome and other sites associated with
7011-548: The Meteorite, brought a group of followers to Meteora. From 1356 to 1372, he founded The Monastery of Great Meteoron on the Broad Rock, which was 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. The creation of the monastic community at Meteora
7134-485: The Prophet). The Ihram (white robe of pilgrimage) is meant to show equality of all Muslim pilgrims in the eyes of Allah. 'A white has no superiority over a black, nor a black over a white. Nor does an Arab have superiority over a non-Arab, nor a non-Arab over an Arab - except through piety' - statement of the Prophet Muhammad. A different form of pilgrimage is ziyarat ( Arabic : زِيَارَة ziyārah , "visit"; Persian : زیارت , ziyārat ). Ziyarat generally refers to
7257-519: The Relics, Maastricht ). Marian pilgrimages remain very popular in Latin America . The Catholic priest Frank Fahey writes that a pilgrim is "always in danger of becoming a tourist" and vice versa, and describes pilgrimages as journeys containing "faith expectancy", a search for wholeness, that are often solitary and employing silence to create an internal sacred space . According to Karel Werner's Popular Dictionary of Hinduism , "most Hindu places of pilgrimage are associated with legendary events from
7380-403: The Tooth in Sri Lanka and the numerous sites associated with teachers and patriarchs of the various traditions. Hindu pilgrimage destinations may be holy cities ( Varanasi , Badrinath ); rivers (the Ganges , the Yamuna ); mountains (several Himalayan peaks are sacred to both Hindus and Buddhists); caves (such as the Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia ); temples; festivals, such as
7503-445: The act of visiting holy places such as tombs or shrines, often associated with the Prophet Muhammad, his family, companions, and other revered figures like legal scholars and Sufi saints. Ziyarat is a voluntary act of pilgrimage practiced by both Sunni and Shia Muslims. Unlike Hajj, which is obligatory for Muslims who are physically and financially able, or Umrah, which is highly recommended but not mandatory, Ziyarat involves visits to
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#17327584067687626-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
7749-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
7872-669: The board of directors of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania ; the IBSA later adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses and renamed pilgrims as traveling overseers . The purpose of Christian pilgrimage was summarized by Pope Benedict XVI in this way: To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. To go on pilgrimage really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe. Above all, Christians go on pilgrimage to
7995-457: The cathedral fire temple that houses the Iranshah Atash Behram , located in the small town of Udvada in the west coast province of Gujarat , is a pilgrimage destination. A modern phenomenon is the cultural pilgrimage which, while involving a personal journey, is secular in nature. Destinations for such pilgrims can include historic sites of national or cultural importance, and can be defined as places "of cultural significance: an artist's home,
8118-426: The caves. Meteora is not mentioned in classical Greek myths nor in Ancient Greek literature . The first people documented to inhabit Meteora after the Neolithic Era were an ascetic group of hermit monks who, in the ninth century AD, moved up to the ancient pinnacles . 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
8241-421: The death of a family member or loved one in many Muslim traditions. Arba'een is one of the largest pilgrimage gatherings on Earth, in which up to 31 million people go to the city of Karbala in Iraq . The second largest holy city in the world, Mashhad , Iran, attracts more than 20 million tourists and pilgrims every year, many of whom come to pay homage to Imam Reza (the eighth Shi'ite Imam). It has been
8364-400: The destruction of the Temple, there is a mitzvah to make a pilgrimage on holidays. Sikhism does not consider pilgrimage as an act of spiritual merit. Guru Nanak went to places of pilgrimage to reclaim the fallen people, who had turned ritualists. He told them of the need to visit that temple of God, deep in the inner being of themselves. According to him: "He performs a pilgrimage who controls
8487-422: The divine, to locations where miracles were performed or witnessed, or locations where a deity is said to live or be "housed", or any site that is seen to have special spiritual powers. Such sites may be commemorated with shrines or temples that devotees are encouraged to visit for their own spiritual benefit: to be healed or have questions answered or to achieve some other spiritual benefit. A person who makes such
8610-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
8733-465: The early example of Origen in the third century, surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers including Saint Jerome , and established by Saint Helena , the mother of Constantine the Great . Beginning in 1894, Christian ministers under the direction of Charles Taze Russell were appointed to travel to and work with local Bible Students congregations for
8856-519: The early period of Hebrew history , pilgrims traveled to Shiloh , Dan , Bethel , and eventually Jerusalem (see also Three Pilgrimage Festivals , a practice followed by other Abrahamic religions ). These festivals, including Passover, Tabernacles, and Shavout, often involved journeys that reflected a physical and spiritual movement, similar to the concept of " tirtha yātrā" in Hinduism, where "tirtha" means "ford" or "crossing," and "yatra" signifies
8979-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
9102-414: The face of an increasing number of Turkish attacks on Greece . At this time, access to the top was via removable ladders or windlass. Currently, getting up there is a lot simpler due to steps having been carved into the rock during the 1920s. Of the 24 monasteries, only six (four of men, two of women) are still functioning, with each housing fewer than ten individuals. The exact date of the establishment of
9225-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
9348-594: The foot of the Chasia mountain range, which forms the natural boundary between Thessaly and Macedonia regions, while the Lithaios River, a tributary of the Pineios River , flows in front of the cave. The small Lithaios River flowing literally on the doorsteps of the cave meant that cave dwellers always had easy access to fresh, clean water without the need to cover daily long distances to find it. Caves in
9471-634: The former five remain managed by monks . Meteora is located in between the town of Kalabaka and the village of Kastraki at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains . The Meteora complex was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1988 because of its outstanding architecture and beauty, combined with religious and cultural significance. The name means "lofty", "elevated", and
9594-419: The giant natural pillars and hill-like rounded boulders that dominate the local area, mainly from the second half of the 14th century under the local rule of Simeon Uroš . Six of these are still active and open to visitors: the monasteries of Great Meteoron (est. 1356), Varlaam , Saint Nicholas Anapausas , Rousanou , Holy Trinity , and Saint Stephen . The latter became a community of nuns in 1961, whereas
9717-545: The ground floor made of brick and supported on four columns. The three old churches or chapels include: The Chapel of Saint John the Baptist which lies next to the katholikon sanctuary, The Saints Constantine and Helen Chapel which is an aisle-less church with large vault , and finally the chapel of Virgin Mary situated in the cave. The Monastery of Varlaam is the second largest monastery of Meteora. The name Varlaam comes from
9840-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
9963-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
10086-495: The life and teachings of Cheikh Amadou Bamba , the founder of the Mouride brotherhood, who established the order in 1883. The pilgrimage begins on the 18th of Safar , the second month of the Islamic calendar. While ziyarat is viewed as permissible and spiritually enriching by most Sunni and Shia traditions, some fundamentalist movements, such as Salafism and Wahhabism, discourage or oppose it. These movements are characterized by
10209-564: The life of the historical Buddha : his supposed birthplace and childhood home ( Lumbini and Kapilavastu in Nepal ) and place of enlightenment ( Bodh Gaya in northern India ), other places he is believed to have visited and the place of his death (or Parinirvana), Kushinagar , India. Others include the many temples and monasteries with relics of the Buddha or Buddhist saints such as the Temple of
10332-403: The lives of various gods.... Almost any place can become a focus for pilgrimage, but in most cases they are sacred cities, rivers, lakes, and mountains." Hindus are encouraged to undertake pilgrimages during their lifetime, though this practice is not considered absolutely mandatory. Most Hindus visit sites within their region or locale. The Ḥajj ( Arabic : حَـجّ , main pilgrimage to Mecca)
10455-589: The location of a pivotal event or an iconic destination". An example might be a devotee of the Beatles visiting Liverpool in England. Destinations for cultural pilgrims include Auschwitz concentration camp , Gettysburg Battlefield or the Ernest Hemingway House . Cultural pilgrims may also travel on religious pilgrimage routes, such as the Way of St. James , with the perspective of making it
10578-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
10701-564: The mid 14th century by a monk from Mount Athos named Saint Athanasios the Meteorite . He began the build with a church in dedication to the Mother of God , the Virgin Mary . He later added small cells so that monks could concentrate and live atop the rock formations. The monastery's second name is, The Holy Monastery of the Transfiguration , which got its name from the second church St. Meteorites built. The successor of Saint Athanasios
10824-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
10947-434: The monasteries allows it to have a particular layout filled with many buildings. The katholikon is dedicated to the Transfiguration of Jesus and was the first church of the monastery. The hermitage of the first founder of the monastery is a small building carved in rock. The kitchen or what is commonly referred to as the hestia is a dome-shaped building near the refectory . There is also a hospital, with its famous roof of
11070-535: The monasteries is widely believed to be unknown; however, there are clues to when each of the monasteries was constructed. By the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, a rudimentary monastic state had formed called the Skete of Stagoi and was centred around the still-standing church of Theotokos (Mother of God). By the end of the twelfth century, an ascetic community had flocked to Meteora. In 1344, Athanasios Koinovitis from Mount Athos, later known as Athanasios
11193-741: The monks were holding refugees. As of 2015, the Monastery of St. Stephen is home to 28 nuns after its conversion to a nunnery in 1961. Meteora is popular with hikers, trail runners, mountain bikers, and rock climbers from around the world, particularly during the summer. The Meteora MTB Race , also known as the Vasilis Efstathiou (Βασίλης Ευσταθίου) MTB Race, is held annually at Meteora. Download coordinates as: Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
11316-521: The most familiar ones are in the province of Yazd . In addition to the traditional Yazdi shrines, new sites may be in the process of becoming pilgrimage destinations. The ruins are the ruins of ancient fire temples . One such site is the ruin of the Sassanian era Azargoshnasp fire temple in Iran's Azarbaijan Province. Other sites are the ruins of fire temples at Rey , south of the capital Tehran , and
11439-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
11562-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
11685-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
11808-502: The peripatetic Kumbh Mela , in 2001 the biggest public gathering in history; or the tombs and dwelling places of saints ( Alandi , Shirdi ). In India and Nepal , there are four places of pilgrimage which are tied to the life of Gautama Buddha : Other pilgrimage places in India and Nepal connected Gautama Buddha's life are: Savatthi , Pataliputta , Nalanda , Gaya , Vesali , Sankasia , Kapilavastu , Kosambi , Rajagaha . Other famous places for Buddhist pilgrimage include: In
11931-770: The pre- Inca culture Chavín to come together, to attend and participate in rituals, consult an oracle, worship or enter a cult, and collect ideas. Bahá'u'lláh decreed pilgrimage to two places in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas : the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, Iraq , and the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran . Later, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá designated the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji, Israel as
12054-462: The public, but is currently closed indefinitely, for safety inspections. Vegetation grows thickly out of the vertical rock walls, mainly due to the water that one is able to find in the cracks and crevices that scale the cliff. Over the past several hundred years, the reports that the Meteora was easily accessible by foot have changed because now one must pass through an impenetrable jungle. Being such massive unpredictable rock pillars, rock falls pose
12177-644: The residents would offer free water and food to those pilgrims along the way. There are 2 main Mazu pilgrimages in Taiwan, usually held between lunar January and April, depending on Mazu's will. Zoroastrians have as their main pilgrimage destinations the city of Yazd and the temples of Pir-e Sabz and Pir-e Naraki in Iran , as well as the cities of Navsari and Udvada in India. In Iran , there are pilgrimage destinations called pirs in several provinces, although
12300-402: The rock cliffs. He offered the sanctuaries as a safe haven during times of political upheaval. The monk Dometius was said to be the founder of the monastery, arriving at the site of Holy Trinity in 1438. The actual monastery is believed to have been built between 1475 and 1476. Some do say that the exact construction date of the monastery like many of the other monasteries is unknown. By the end of
12423-465: The ruins of the Monastery of St. John the Baptist and the Pantokrator. The Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas is located atop a small narrow rock. It is approximately eighty meters high and the first which the pilgrims encounter on their way to the holy Meteora. The Monastery was founded in the late 14th century and today is surrounded by the deserted and ruined monasteries of St. John Prodromos,
12546-433: 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 Dupiani . As early as the eleventh century, monks occupied the caverns of Meteora. However, monasteries were not built until the fourteenth century, when the monks sought somewhere to hide in
12669-493: The site was bombed. There are various rocks of Meteora that surround the village of Kastraki and border the north side of the main town of Kalabaka . The height in metres is also given for various rocks. The greater Meteora rock formation also extends northwest into the Gavros and Agios Dimitrios areas, although the term Meteora is commonly used to refer to only the rocks around Kalabaka and Kastraki . At their peak in
12792-399: The spiritual literature of Christianity , the concept of pilgrim and pilgrimage may refer to the experience of life in the world (considered as a period of exile) or to the inner path of the spiritual aspirant from a state of wretchedness to a state of beatitude. Christian pilgrimage was first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus . Aside from
12915-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
13038-573: The top of the rock formation, however, the building only is reported to have taken around twenty days. Monks have been present since the 16th century, however, there has been a constant decline in their presence since the 17th century. Today the monastery is accessed through a series of ladders that scale the north side of the rock. The museum is open to travelers and contains a wide array of relics and ecclesiastical treasures. As of 2015 there are seven monks remaining in Varlaam. The Monastery of Rousanou
13161-426: The vertical faults. It is unusual that this conglomerate formation and type of weathering are confined to a relatively localised area within the surrounding mountain formation. The complex is referred to an exhumed continental remnant of Pangean association. This type of rock formation and weathering process has happened in many other places locally and throughout the world, but what makes Meteora's appearance special
13284-543: The vicinity of Meteora were inhabited continuously between 50,000 and 5,000 years ago. The oldest known example of a built structure, a stone wall that blocked two-thirds of the entrance to the Theopetra cave , was constructed 23,000 years ago, probably as a barrier against cold winds – the Earth was experiencing an ice age at the time – and many Paleolithic and Neolithic artifacts of human occupation have been found within
13407-473: The walls are decorated by 14th-century frescoes. The monastery has been restored in the 16th century and again in the 1960s. The Monastery of the Holy Trinity is believed to have been built in the 14th and 15th century. Even prior to this, ancient Greeks established hermitages at the base of the rock cliffs. In the 14th century, John Uroš moved to the Meteora and endowed and built monasteries on top of
13530-412: The words of UNESCO, "The net in which intrepid pilgrims were hoisted up vertically alongside the 373 metres (1,224 ft) cliff where the Varlaam monastery dominates the valley symbolizes the fragility of a traditional way of life that is threatened with extinction." Until the seventeenth century, the primary means of conveying goods and people from these eyries was by means of baskets and ropes. Under
13653-402: The world, where millions of Shia Muslims travel to Karbala to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein during the 40-day mourning period after Ashura. Al-Arba‘īn ( Arabic : ٱلْأَرْبَـعِـيْـن , "The Forty"), Chehelom ( Persian : چهلم , Urdu : چہلم , "the fortieth [day]") or Qirkhī , Imāmīn Qirkhī ( Azerbaijani : İmamın qırxı ( Arabic : إمامین قیرخی ), "the fortieth of Imam")
13776-399: Was Saint Joasaph, who continued to build more cells, a hospital, and renovated the churches atop the rocks. The Monastery thrived in the 16th century when it received many imperial and royal donations. At the time it had over three hundred monks living and worshipping within its cells. It is still a living monastery as there were three monks in residence as of 2015. Being the largest among all
13899-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
14022-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
14145-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
14268-531: Was an ascetic religious practice, as the pilgrim left the security of home and the clan for an unknown destination, trusting completely in Divine Providence . These travels often resulted in the founding of new abbeys and the spread of Christianity among the pagan population in Britain and in continental Europe. The ceremonial center Chavín de Huántar served as a gathering place for people of
14391-409: Was being increasingly threatened by Turkish raiders who wanted control over the fertile plain of Thessaly, which they finally secured in the second half of the 15th century. The hermit monks, seeking a retreat from the expanding Ottoman empire , found the inaccessible rock pillars of Meteora to be an ideal refuge. More than 20 monasteries were built, of which six remain today. In 1517, Theophanes built
14514-497: Was formed of deposits of stone, sand, and mud from streams flowing into a delta at the edge of a lake, over millions of years. About 60 million years ago during the Paleogene period a series of earth movements pushed the seabed upward, creating a high plateau and causing many vertical fault lines in the thick layer of sandstone. The huge rock pillars were then formed by weathering by water, wind, and extremes of temperature on
14637-429: Was off-limits to Jews from 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem was under Jordanian control. There are numerous lesser Jewish pilgrimage destinations, mainly tombs of tzadikim , throughout Israel and Palestine and all over the world, including: Hebron ; Bethlehem ; Mount Meron ; Netivot ; Uman , Ukraine ; Silistra , Bulgaria ; Damanhur , Egypt ; and many others. Many rabbis claim that even today, after
14760-483: Was protected and sponsored by the local lord Simeon Uroš , based in nearby Trikala , who in 1356 had proclaimed himself Emperor of Serbs and Greeks following the death of Stefan Dušan . Simeon Uros was succeeded in 1370 by his son John Uroš , who three years later retired as a monk to the Meteoron monastery and died there in the early 1420s. At the end of the fourteenth century, Christian rule over northern Greece
14883-609: Was restored with the rebuilding of the Temple , but following its destruction in 70 CE, the obligation to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices again went into abeyance. The western retaining wall of the Temple Mount , known as the Western Wall or "Wailing" Wall, is the remaining part of Second Jewish Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem is the most sacred and visited site for Jews. Pilgrimage to this area
15006-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
15129-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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