Thessaly

Thessaly

The **Meteora** road trip in the Thessaly region is unlike any other driving experience on earth. You drive across a perfectly flat plain until giant grey pillars of rock burst from the ground. Monasteries sit on the very top of these peaks like they were dropped there by hand. The road winds between the base of these stone giants, making your car feel tiny. It is a place of deep peace and massive scale. You can drive to different lookout points to see the sunset hit the rocks. Drive east toward the **Pelion** peninsula to find a dense forest that meets the sea. The roads here are a beautiful maze of chestnut and plane trees. You find hidden beaches with white pebbles and water that looks like liquid glass. It is the mythical home of the centaurs and feels just as magical today. The mountain villages have stone roofs and cold springs. Every turn in Pelion brings you from a dark forest to a sunlit bay. You can eat apples and cherries right from the trees along the roadside. The drive is a perfect mix of high alpine air and salty sea breeze. You climb high into the fog and then drop down to a sunny beach in less than an hour. It is a dream route for those who want both the mountains and the ocean. Thessaly proves that Greece is much more than just islands and ruins.

Thessaly highlights

Part of these road trips

Follow the routes that cross this destination

The Scenic Route
The Heritage Drive
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History of Thessaly

Thessaly is home to the massive stone pillars of **Meteora**, which were formed sixty million years ago as an inland sea drained away. On a Meteora road trip, you see monasteries perched on rocks that rise four hundred meters above the plain. The first monks arrived in the 11th century, but the first organized monastery, the Great Meteoron, was founded in 1340 AD. For centuries, the only way to reach the top was by being hauled up in a net or using long wooden ladders. The region was famous in antiquity for its **elite cavalry**, which provided the backbone of Alexander the Great’s army. The flat plains were perfect for breeding the Thessalian horse, the most prized breed in the ancient world. Mount Pelion was the mythical home of the Centaurs and the site where the Argonauts built their ship, the Argo, in 1200 BC. The forest of **Pelion** provided the oak timber used for the hull of the legendary vessel. In 1881, Thessaly was annexed to the modern Greek state after centuries of Ottoman rule. The city of **Trikala** became the first in Greece to install a public electric light system in 1906. The mountain villages of Pelion grew rich in the 18th century by exporting silk and red-dyed cotton to the markets of Vienna and Berlin. The province remains the agricultural center of Greece, defined by mountain myths and the vast green wealth of the plains.
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