Meteora in Greece - photos & stamps

I collect cave stamps and some of the first in my collection were those of Meteora in Greece. The name Meteora relates to columns in the sky.

Meteora was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 1988 : "In a region of almost inaccessible sandstone peaks, monks settled on these 'columns of the sky' from the 11th century onwards. Twenty-four of these monasteries were built, despite incredible difficulties, at the time of the great revival of the eremetic ideal in the 15th century. Their 16th-century frescoes mark a key stage in the development of post-Byzantine painting."

Meteora is located in the Region of Thessaly in mainland Greece. It has been on my to do list for year and I finally paid a visit in Sept 2018. It is certainly an amazing place, both geologically and culturally. A series of sandstone towers stand up from the plains and 24 monasteries were built on top of these towers. There are also various caves.

My first real view was from Kalambaka town -

Six of the monasteries are still inhabited and we visited two. The first was St Stephens, which is inhabited by nuns. No photos are allowed inside the churches, which are packed full of paintings and icons etc.

 Varlaam -

Another monastery -

This is Varlaam, note the staircase and cave -

There are many caves, some have been inhabited since 50,000 years ago. In more recent times, one high level cave was used as a prison for the monks, but I didn't manage to get any photos.

See more on Wikipedia.

Some stamps of Meteora :

1940

1942

1961

1981

Maxim cards from 2009 -

© Liz Price

Corfu water tunnels

Corfu water tunnels - not natural caves, but at least they are underground!

The Greek island of Corfu does have a few natural caves, but they were all to hard to get to via public transport. I stayed in the village of Benitses and immediately behind is a high range of hills that contain caves. I didn't attempt to get to any, instead I decided to go to the water tunnels and aqueduct.

It took me 2 attempts to find the Benitses springs and water tunnels. They aren't marked on any map that I had. The first day I started on the right trail, but decided it was wrong, so turned back and took another trail. This led quite steeply uphill. When it levelled out and went down slightly, I almost turned back, but carried on a bit and then found one spring. It is by Agia Paraskeuh church and the water comes out of a pipe. I filled up my water bottle, ate a peach and left.

The next day I got a sketch map that showed Benitses water springs and set off. This time I continued on the initial trail I had taken yesterday. It is Route 1, marked by white and red markers. There were also a couple of signs saying water springs. The path led gently uphill, more or less alongside a stream, so I guessed it was right. I was really pleased when I came to the water tunnels.

These were constructed when Sir Frederick Adams was Lord High Commissioner of the Ionian islands, 1824 - 1832. After the Napoleonic Wars, in 1814 Corfu was placed under the protection of the British. This meant the British were responsible for the building of the roads and the creation of the island's water supply.

The first tunnel I saw is the biggest. It is dated 1909. There was also an old laminated sign "Lord High Commissioner during the British Protectorate, Sir Frederick Adam.

As it was the end of summer, the water level was low, and didn't cover the pipe leading into the tunnel, so I was able to walk along that. This led to the "control room" with 3 "controls". There was very little stal in the tunnel.

The 2nd tunnel, dated 1906, was much smaller size and was wet, so I didn't go in.

The 3rd one I took at was very small and water was coming out of a pipe right inside the entrance, there didn't seem to be a tunnel.

Slightly higher was another entrance above a dry stream. This was a through tunnel.

Another very small entrance, it was dry inside and there seemed to be more calcite. This was right by the steps leading up to Agios Nikolas church.

The stream above the church was completely dry, but presumably there would be a waterfall here in the wet season.

I had a look around, but still didn't find the aqueduct. One report, Belvedere Trails, says it is at the top of the hill, which seems strange as the springs are lower down. The aqueduct was marked once, in the village, then there were no more signs. However I am not even sure how much of it still exists. It was built in 1830.

Aqueducts on Corfu :
The Romans created the first aqueduct network in Corfu between the 1st and 2nd century AD to transport water from the source of St. Gourgis, source Lartourou in Vryoni area and the source of Chrisiida.

During the period of British occupation in Corfu, there were problems with water supply to the villages. The British High Commissioner Sir Frederick Adam decided on a solution to the problem by transporting fresh drinking water from the source of Carteri and St. Nicholas in the area of Benitses down to the village.

On October 18, 1830 in the Senate he proposed the construction of an aqueduct 6.5 miles from Benitses at an altitude of 55 m. The budget was £19,386. The Senate unanimously accepted the proposal and the water supply to the city from the new aqueduct began with a ceremony in the main square just 10 months later on August 7, 1831. Info from Corfu aqueduct. There are also old photos on that page.

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Ruins of Roman baths
There are the ruined remains of an old Roman villa with baths in Benitses village.

There is a lot of info on the villa and baths on this site, atcorfu. On that page are photos with a yellow info sign, that sign no longer exists. It is a pity there is no info at all now, so tourists have no idea what they are looking at!

© Liz Price

Bath Freestone Workings, book

In 1984, I published a book I had written, "Bath Freestone Workings".

Reviews appeared in local papers,

Salt Mine at Berchtesgaden, Germany

I was in Salzburg in Austria and we had a chance to go to a salt mine. I thought we were going to the Hallein mine in Austria, but instead we went to the one in Berchtesgaden in Germany.

Salt has been mined in Berchtesgaden since the 12th century. The current salt mine has been operating for 500 years (1517). The Salt Mine employs approx. 100 employees. Half of these work underground.

It was a really fun and interesting tour, although sadly no photography is allowed. First everyone is given overalls to wear and bags and coats must be placed in a locker. Then there is a 650 m train ride into the mine. The non German speakers are given a recording to listen to in each relevant section. From the train we walked into the Salt Cathedral and did the first slide down to the lower level. This was great fun, up to 4 people at one time going down the steep 34 m slide. We went through some tunnels and saw a grotto in honour of King Ludwig II.

We moved into a room and were shown a film on salt mining with a display on a 3D model. I hadn't realised the salt is extracted as brine, it is not cut in blocks. The salt does not occur in a pure form, but is encased in “Haselgebirge”, a composite rock contains an average of 50% salt.

Salt deposits are proven to be up to 300 m below the valley floor in the area of the Salt Mine.  It is released from the mountain with the aid of freshwater using a “wet mining” method. Hollow spaces are created, then water is pumped into these voids, this water removes the salt from the composite rock on the floor, walls and ceiling. The salty water is denser so sinks to the bottom. It has a 26.5% salt content. The hollow space is constantly enlarged as more fresh water is fed in. This process is repeated until a 3,500 to 5,000 cubic metre hollow space is formed.

At five mining levels, 20 state of the art so called mud-flush drilling plants are in operation. Approx. 900,000 m³ of brine are extracted per annum. 2.000 m³ of freshwater are required for this each day.

The brine is pumped up to the surface and to the refinery where the water is extracted leaving pure salt. The Berchtesgaden brine is pumped to the Salt Works Bad Reichenhall further processed into industrial salts there.

Down to 400 m depth below the mining route level, samples are taken by drilling in order to ascertain the minimum salt content in the rock.

We went through more tunnels and saw the airlift drilling equipment. Next stop was the Magic Salt Room. In the centre of the room is a container of large salt crystals and different colours are played onto the salt, then a series of stories relating to the mining are screened on to the walls. It was very effective.

We then took another slide down to a lower level, this slide is 40 m. We came to a large chamber and initially I thought it was empty until I realised there was actually a lake. The ceiling is perfectly reflected in the water. We crossed the Mirror Lake on a large wooden barge, with the accompaniment of music and lights displays of salt chemical structure played on the walls. We saw a pump that is used to lift the brine to the surface, it is made of bronze. One of the old pumps used to lift the brine up 356 m. The brine was then sent in wooden pipes from Berchtesgaden to Ramsau.

Next we took an elevator back up 2 levels and took the train journey back out of the mine.

The slide (internet photo)

For photos and more information, see The Salt Mine Berchtesgaden.

Bats and SARS in China

In 2002-2003 an outbreak of SARS killed almost 800 people around the world. The virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a pneumonia-like illness and was first noticed in Guangdong province, southeastern China.

Scientists found genetically similar viruses in masked palm civets (Paguma larvata) sold in Guangdong’s animal markets. It was later found that similar viruses were in horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus) in China. It was thought the deadly strain probably originated in the bats, and later passed through civets before reaching humans.

This led to sampling horseshoe bats around China. In a cave in Yunnan, scientists found a strain of the virus similar to the human version. They then spent five years monitoring the bats that lived there, collecting fresh guano and taking anal swabs.

After a lot of research virologists have shown that this single population of horseshoe bats harbours virus strains with all the genetic building blocks of the one that jumped to humans in 2002. They published the news in Nov 2017.

This leads to questions. How can a virus from bats in Yunnan travel to animals and humans around 1,000 kilometres away in Guangdong, without causing any suspected cases in Yunnan itself. Also can
the human SARS strain jump from bats to another animal, such as a civet.

The scientists have to continue their search for other bat populations that carry the same strain of virus.

In the meantime there is the worry that the deadly outbreak could reappear. The cave with the affected bats is only 1 km from a village.

The Chinese authorities have closed many markets selling animals in China since the outbreaks of SARS and other infectious diseases. I really wonder if this is effective, or enforced.

See my blogs on bushmeat in Laos :
Laos markets
Laos bushmeat,
Luang Prabang market 

These photos were all taken in northern Laos in 2007 and 2008, relatively close to the Chinese border and Yunnan!

See the main article on bats and SARS in Nature 1 Dec 2017, "Bat cave solves mystery of deadly SARS virus — and suggests new outbreak could occur".

Huge cave found on the moon

A huge underground cave has been found on the moon, opening up the possibility for astronauts to take shelter there in future missions. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) made the ground breaking discovery and announced it overnight. This was reported in ninecom.au news on 19 Oct 2017. The report also has pictures of the cave.

The entrance to the cave as seen from above the surface of the moon. (JAXA)

The cave is about 100 m wide and stretches 50 km across the moon's surface according to data collected by JAXA’s moon probe called the Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE).

A 50m wide opening to the cave was first discovered by SELENE in 2009, and was analysed over the following years.

Data confirmed the cavern was likely created by a lava tube formed during volcanic activity and there is a chance ice or water exists in rocks inside it.

Scientists hope future moon explorers could use the cave for protection from the sun's radiation and cosmic rays. It could even act as base for the explorers and if there is water or ice to found inside, it could be used as fuel.

Scientists widely believe the moon experienced a series of large-scale volcanic activity up until about one billion years ago.

The cave, believed to be a lava tube created about 3.5 billion years ago
See more on Japan Times 18 Oct 2017.

Rock art in Cuba

News of a new cave painting site in Cuba was announced in August 2017. I went to Cuba in 2015 and wasn't aware of any rock art.

The news item "Speleologists Discover New Cave Painting Site in Cuba" can be seen here. It says that 'Cuban speleologists have discovered a new cave painting site in a cave located at the Sierra Maestra mountain range, in southern Granma province'.

The mountains have a long history of guerrilla warfare, such as the Cuban Revolution and Cuban Wars of Independence, including the time when Fidel Castro hid in the area with his supporters. Map from Wikipedia -

I was in Santiago de Cuba province and saw the mountains, they are volcanic -

The rock art consists of a group of pre-Columbian petroglyphs (carvings or incisions made in the rock). These engravings are the first ones reported in that area of Cuba. Photo taken from Prensa Latina -

The discovery is particularly important because the seven cave painting sites previously identified in that province are located in the western extremity, near Cabo Cruz. Wikipedia map -