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On a wing and a prayer: The extraordinary hanging monasteries that cling to the sides of cliffs


By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 21:53 GMT, 27 May 2012 | UPDATED: 21:54 GMT, 27 May 2012



When you're trying to connect with your god, it helps to find some peace and quiet, if you can.

But that was, indeed, no such problem for the architects of these impossibly built monasteries.

Constructed at dizzying heights on the sides of mountains, they ensured only the most devoted - and vertigo-free - followers would join them for prayer.


Gripping: This gravity-defying hanging monastery clings to the side of Mt Huashan in China and is only accessible via steep and dangerous paths



Closer to their god: The Taktshang Tiger's Nest monastery clings to a cliff 2,300ft above the Paro Valley floor in Bhutan at such a height it looks down on the clouds

Complete isolation: According to legend, the Tiger's Nest takes its name from the 'second Buddha', Precious Guru Padmasambhava, who travelled to the site on a tiger




Between a rock and a hard place: The Holy Trinity is part of the Meteora - which translates as 'suspended in the air' - complex of monasteries in Greece, one of the largest collections of such buildings in the country

Many were only accessible by steep and secret paths in order to provide the most seclusion as they sought uninterrupted spiritual awakening.

By far the most precarious is a monastery that dangles seemingly in defiance of the laws of physics on the side of Mt Huashan in China.
Located around 75 miles east from Xi'an City of Shaanxi Province, Mt Huashan is known as 'The number one precipitous mountain under Heaven'. It is one of the five sacred mountains in China.
It is home to several influential Taoist temples where emperors of past dynasties made pilgrimages, making Mt Huashan the holy land of Taoism.


Vertigo-inducing: The Sumela monastery in Turkey was created 386AD apparently after two priests discovered a miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary in a cave on the mountain



Prayers at 3,900ft: Visitors survey the incredible buildings of the Sumela monastery which was built, on southern shore of the Black Sea, during the reign of Emporer Theodosius I



Don't look down! The monasteries of Agios Nikolaos Anapafsas (left) and Agia Roussanou (right) in Greece, which form part of the Meteora complex of precariously placed buildings





Head for heights: French mountain climber Catherine Destivelle during her ascension of the Rocher Saint Esprit, in the Meteora, with the Monastery of Roussanou located on a parallel summit (right)


Path to enlightenment: A stunning scene showing the Monastery of Roussanou in what must one of the most serene places in the world


Balancing act: The monastery of Roussanou at the base of a stone tower in Meteora, Greece in a picture taken in 1985


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