Meteora (Greek: Μετέωρα, “suspended rocks”, “suspended in the air” or “in the heavens above”) is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece. In the 9th century, an ascetic group of hermit monks moved up to the ancient pinnacles. They were the first people to inhabit Metéora. They lived in hollows and fissures in the rock towers whose great height, combined with the sheerness of the cliff walls, kept away all but the most determined visitors. The pinnacles were created some 60 million years ago in the Tertiary period, emerging from the cone of a river and further transformed by earthquakes.