Fifteen spectacular shrines or perched on the tops of the mountains, are defying gravity. These ancient monastic structures are 15 of the most beautiful monasteries, abbeys and shrines in the world. Below are the following:

Meteora Monastery
Meteora means «suspended in the air» in Greek, and that’s an apt description for these centuries old monasteries on top of 1,200-foot high cliffs of Thessaly the «Stone Forest», as many as 24 monasteries scattered have been established during the height of the area in the fourteenth century. Today only half a dozen are active. Today, more tourists warriors sweep Ottomans is the main visitors of this stunning area in northern Greece.

Taktsang Monastery, the «Tiger’s Nest»
The monastery is located in the mountainous area Taktsang in Bhutan is one of Buddhism’s holiest and most beautiful places in the world. It is said to have been built in the 8th century by a holy man who flew to the site in the back of a tigress in heat. Taktsang is known as the Tiger’s Nest. Noting the complex perched on a high cliff about 2000 feet above the Paro River valley, one begins to think that the old legend can only be true. Taktsang can be considered a work in progress as new buildings added to the complex, most recently in 1982.

Kiev Pechersk Lavra Monastery
The Monastery of the Caves in Kiev, is a huge complex of stunning buildings in the heart of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Originally established in the year 1051, the monastery was destroyed by the Mongols twice, in 1240 and again in 1480. In the following centuries, the complex grew in size and wealth, winning their bright golden domes that are their symbol.

Shrine Mont Saint-Michel, a «mountain in the sea»
Mont Saint-Michel is a «fortified abbey» and looks delighted. Construction began in 966, its location on the rocky island off to protect against marauding highest tides in Europe.

Petra Monastery
This building in the ancient city of Petra in Jordan, was elaborately carved red sandstone canyons more than 2,000 years ago. It looks like it’s more famous neighbor, the «Treasure of the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Rumtek Monastery
Nestled in the lush foothills of the Himalayas, watered by the monsoons, powerful in northern India is the Rumtek Monastery. Home to monks of all ages, including children, Rumtek whole sample in bright colors and with the glint of gold. It is a «explosion of color.»

Monastery Nilov
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorsky took there the first color photo Nilov monastery in Tver, Russia in 1910, before there was color photography. The process used by Prokudin-Gorsky to create beautiful images in color is so complex, that Czar Nicholas II gave a fully equipped railroad car with which I travel through Russia and most photographed landmarks. All this in Stolbnyi Island.

If Monastery Xuan Kong
The Monastery Xuan Kong Si, was built on a cliff near Mount Heng in Shanxi province, China, some 1400 years ago. Even today it is unknown how it was built. Although it may seem rather fragile, the Hanging Temple has hung there through dozens of major earthquakes including the deadliest earthquake in history: an earthquake in 1556 in which 830,000 people died. It is also called «Hanging», near Datong, China.

Good Travel!