Original subtitles

(dramatic music)

Narrator: Northern greece.

Flanked by the rugged vastness of the pindus mountains

And the blue expanse of the aegean sea,

This is a land of mystery.

It's a region of enchanting villages,

Hidden valleys, and mountaintop lakes where dragons roam.

100 years ago its greatest city, thessaloniki,

Rose phoenix-like from the ashes of fire.

In this land, old and new live side-by-side,

And an island with a fighting spirit

Is defended by not just one, but two mighty fortresses.

Over 2,000 years ago, julius caesar's assassin

Sought refuge in this sheltered harbor,

Only to end his days in defeat and suicide.

This is the home of the channel,

Where the young seek eternal love.

The mountain where the god zeus

Was said to hurl thunderbolts.

(thunder crashing)

And greece's answer to the grand canyon.

It's not the world's biggest gorge,

But it still makes the record books.

Travel with the daring farmers

Who navigate one of the world's most dangerous roads,

(majestic music)

Scale the pinnacles that inspired a dramatic location

In "game of thrones,"

And visit the monastery where holy men

Took a stand against james bond.

On a tranquil island, a fairytale wedding chapel

Inspired the hit musical "mamma mia!"

This region is home to women who fought fascism

And an infant who left this palace in a fruit box.

These days he's better known as prince philip,

Husband of queen elizabeth ii.

From the steam train that travels

Through a mythological forest

And a picture-postcard landscape

To the gravity-defying dancer

Who wants more than anything to preserve her backdrop.

This is the unrivaled natural beauty

And pulsating culture of northern greece.

(upbeat music)

(gentle thoughtful music)

The fabled mount olympus

Is the highest and most majestic of greece's mountains.

Olympus soars to a height of 9,500 feet.

It's a fitting home for the gods.

According to legend,

12 deities dwell on olympus's highest peak, mytikas.

The ancients called mytikas pantheon,

Which means honor all gods.

They were said to live in the peak's alpine ravines,

Which the poet homer described as mysterious folds.

Among them were zeus the king of the gods,

Aphrodite, the goddess of love,

And dionysus, the god of wine.

The gods feature in many legends of war and intrigue.

(thunder clapping)

Perhaps the most dramatic

Is the tale of the creature typhon,

Who had 100 snake-heads and eyes blazing fire.

(dramatic music)

(creature roaring)

Typhon attacked the mountain,

Causing such chaos and destruction

That the gods themselves fled.

Only zeus remained.

At last, the king of the gods

Managed to smite typhon to the earth with thunderbolts.

(thunder crashing)

It's from this legend that we get the term typhoon

For a ferocious and destructive storm.

(wind whooshing)

Some 80 miles from olympus lies kalambaka,

The threshold of another equally celebrated high place.

For a town in such an ancient land,

Kalambaka has a surprisingly modern appearance.

All the houses look similar,

With white walls and red rooftops.

(gentle pensive music)

But kalambaka's setting is show-stopping.

It's the gateway to one of the most incredible regions

In all of greece.

Immediately north of the town,

Towering rock formations dominate the skyline.

(gentle suspenseful music)

They stand like titans surveying the landscape.

This is meteora.

The name means suspended in the air

And it's easy to see why.

The sandstone pinnacles soar upwards,

With the tallest reaching a height of 2,000 feet.

Some 60 million years ago

This area was a large river estuary.

A series of earthquakes pushed the riverbed upwards,

Creating a high plateau broken by fault lines.

Since that time, the stones have been shaped and sculpted

By untold millennia of wind, rain, and earthquakes.

Meteora is a place unlike anywhere else on earth.

And yet many will recognize it.

It inspired one of the most atmospheric locations

In the hit drama series "game of thrones."

(dramatic music)

This is the setting for eyrie castle,

The fortress in the clouds

Where the unlucky plunge to their deaths

Through the moon door.

(dramatic music continues)

(gentle majestic music)

This otherworldly landscape has always attracted humans.

During the middle ages,

Christian monks established 24 monasteries

On these dizzying heights.

Today, only six still remain as functioning monasteries.

The monastery of varlaam takes its name from the hermit

Who lived on the site some 700 years ago.

On a sheer sandstone precipice,

Stands the great meteoron, the oldest of the monasteries.

(gentle music)

Going to and from this place would get you fit in no time.

Stairs rise along the natural contours of the cliff

Until they reach a village in the air,

Some 2,000 feet above sea level.

The great meteoron has stood here for over 600 years,

Clinging to the summit of the rock.

For centuries, christian hermits have come here

In search of spiritual isolation.

A small number of monks still live here.

Most of their income comes from tourism,

With thousands visiting the monastery annually.

(majestic music)

(gentle pensive music)

This is the smallest of the monestaries.

Perhaps the most iconic of all these religious houses

Is the monastery of the holy trinity.

Built in 1475,

The monastery is well known for its iconic white cross.

Once 40 monks lived here, but now there's only one.

For centuries the only contact

The monks had with the outside world was a basket

That they lowered down for food and supplies

From this wooden balcony.

These days, there's a more modern option,

But today it's an especially harrowing ride.

(tense music)

The doors on the monastery's cable car

Have been removed for repairs,

Making this worker's trip even more scenic than usual.

One false move could send him plummeting

Over 1,000 feet to the valley below.

It's a stunt worthy of james bond.

Appropriate, since the holy trinity

Featured in the bond movie "for your eyes only."

(dramatic music)

In the film, the monastery doubles

As the fictional saint cyril's,

Where bond goes to foil a kgb plot.

To gain access, he has to scale the sheer rockface,

A next to impossible task for most people

And a difficult one even for 007.

(suspenseful music)

The local authorities

Gave the go-ahead for filming at holy trinity,

But the monks feared the movie would be too violent.

They tried to stop the shoot

By putting sheets and plastic on the monastery's roofs.

The dispute led to a compromise,

The producers could shoot the monastery,

But only on the outside.

Greece makes a great backdrop for action

And an even better one for romance.

(gentle upbeat music)

Narrator: It's no surprise that hollywood

Has returned time and again to greece,

Given its array of stunning scenic locations.

In 2007, the blockbuster musical "mamma mia!"

Was filmed here at kastani beach on the island of skopelos.

This is where the characters sophie and sky

Reveal their love for each other

To the strains of abba's "lay all your love on me."

(gentle majestic music)

The beautiful chapel of agios ioannis kastri

Hosted the movie's wedding scenes.

(camera whirring)

Nikos sofiriou and evangelia taktikou

Are delighted to celebrate their marriage

In this beautiful location.

(camera whirring)

It's not the easiest place to reach.

110 stone-carved steps ascend to the tiny chapel.

(uplifting music)

"mamma mia!" fans who'd like to tie the knot here

May face another slight problem.

You have to be greek orthodox to get married in this church.

(gentle music)

(tense music)

Back on the mainland,

The pelion peninsula looks out on the shimmering blue

Of the pagasetic gulf.

It's a place whose physical beauty

Has inspired soaring works of art,

Including some iconic soundtracks.

(sparse majestic music)

The greek composer vangelis attained worldwide fame

With his haunting scores for the films "blade runner"

And "chariots of fire."

Vangelis was born not far from ano lechonia.

This village is home to a famous chariot, not of fire,

But of steam.

(majestic music)

This is the pelion steam train,

Known affectionately as smudgy.

(train chuffing) (train hissing)

It's a moutzouri, which in greek means smoky train.

The train is headed for milies village,

Just five miles away as the crow flies.

But the route winds so much through mountainous

And forested terrain that it takes the train

An hour and a half to complete the trip.

The track cuts through a forest of walnut,

Beech, and oak trees.

In greek mythology, they provided the timber for the ship

In which jason and the argonauts

Set sail in search of the golden fleece.

(train horn blares)

Building a railway through such challenging terrain

Was a major engineering challenge,

And it required several steel and stone bridges.

The most impressive is kalorema, a viaduct with five arches.

The reason for the name is obvious.

In greek kalorama means fine view

(train rattling)

(train horn toots)

Finally, the train reaches the historic station at milies.

Smudgy has successfully completed another journey.

(dramatic music)

Greece's second-largest city, thessaloniki,

Stands at the upper end of the thermaic gulf.

Today the city's waterfront looks peaceful and prosperous

As does its magnificent central plaza, aristotelous square.

But a century ago, not far from here,

A spark from a kitchen fire ignited a pile of straw.

(dramatic music continues)

Strong winds fanned the fire into an inferno

And soon the entire docks and downtown area were ablaze.

The fire completely destroyed the area

Now occupied by aristotelous square

And obliterated nearly 10,000 houses,

Until, at last, firefighters managed to extinguish it.

The great fire of thessaloniki

Remains one of the worst disasters

In modern greek history.

In 1918 city planners drew up ambitious plans

For a new urban layout.

(upbeat music)

Rising literally from the ashes,

Aristotelous square stands at the center

Of the new thessaloniki.

Thessaloniki may not have the touristic pulling power

Of athens or the islands,

But the city, also known as saloniki,

Has many surprises up its sleeve,

(ominous music)

And a history that dates back over 2,300 years.

The romans once ruled here

And their magnificent architecture still astounds.

The rotunda once served as a mausoleum

For the roman emperor.

It later became a christian church.

But in the 15th century,

The ottoman turks conquered the region that is now greece.

They turned the rotunda into a mosque.

It became a symbol of the mighty ottoman empire.

(upbeat mysterious music)

So did the iconic white tower,

Once used as an ottoman prison.

This building on agias sofias square

Has another kind of story.

It's said to be haunted.

(eerie music)

The red house got its name from its distinctive color.

But it has a strange history.

Built in 1928, the house acquired an aura of bad luck

When the owner's textile factory burnt to the ground.

More ominously, residents claimed to encounter ghosts

And even vampires in the building.

(eerie music continues)

Believing the mansion cursed, the owners abandoned it.

(gentle upbeat music)

In 1983,

The greek government put an order of preservation on it

And it housed a cafe and a restaurant.

In 2014, the owner of thessaloniki's football team,

Ivan savvidis, purchased the property for $4 1/2 million.

Locals feared that the sinister house

Would cast a curse on their football team.

(crowds chanting)

But in 2018 to 2019, the team had its best season ever,

Winning the greek league for the first time in 34 years.

It also went through the season unbeaten.

So maybe the red house isn't cursed after all.

(upbeat dramatic music)

Not far away on thessaloniki's waterfront is a sculpture,

Commemorating a hometown hero.

This 20-foot high statue was unveiled in 1973

To honor one of the most famous kings of all time,

Alexander the great.

Alexander was born near thessaloniki in 356 bc.

By the time of his death 33 years later,

He had conquered much of the known world.

Some 50 miles to the west,

Stands the place where alexander received his education.

(gentle mysterious music)

Cloaked in trees and foliage,

These are the timeworn remains

Of the ancient school of mieza.

The boy alexander attended school here,

Sleeping, cooking his meals,

And studying in a cave like this one.

His teacher was one of greece's greatest philosophers:

Aristotle.

It's easy to imagine aristotle and his pupil strolling here.

They would have explored many subjects

Because aristotle is considered

One of the greatest intellectuals of all time.

Modern scholars still study his contributions to philosophy,

Science, and politics.

(dramatic majestic music)

Alexander also learned to hunt, ride, and fight,

Skills that served him well in later life.

Taking the kingship at age 20,

He went on to conquer persia and much of the middle east.

Alexander may have lived over 2,000 years ago,

But he had one thing in common with many people today,

He liked wine.

(gentle pensive music)

Narrator: A short distance south of thessaloniki,

Winemaker vangelis gerovassiliou

Has carefully nurtured this vineyard for some 40 years.

And he's spent even longer

Trying to perfect the art of winemaking,

But if it hadn't been for a dismissive remark,

He may never have taken this path.

When studying agriculture, vangelis got interested in ways

To improve the taste of wine.

He consulted a chemist,

Who replied bluntly, "it's a secret."

Annoyed by the terse response,

Vangelis decided to discover the secret himself.

Since then he's dedicated his life to the study

And practice of winemaking.

Vangelis has even managed to rescue

A long-forgotten greek wine from oblivion.

Years ago, he heard about a white wine grape called

The malagousia.

Once popular, it had fallen out of use in winemaking.

After some experimentation,

Vangelis successfully fermented the grape.

With its expressive nose and rich aromas,

The reborn malagousia wine soon caught on

And today, it's produced all over greece.

(dramatic music)

The city of kavala, on the aegean's northern shores,

Has an unusual claim to fame.

It played host to the man who killed julius caesar.

In 44 bc,

Marcus brutus and his associates

Assassinated caesar in rome.

Public outrage at the deed

Forced brutus to retreat to kavala with his fleet.

Defeated in battle soon afterwards,

He committed suicide.

(bright upbeat music)

But kavala's most famous landmark

Dates from more recent times.

This magnificent two -tiered structure

Snakes its way through the downtown area.

Running for a distance of 920 feet,

This is the aqueduct that once supplied the city with water.

It's known simply as kamares, which means arches.

The aqueduct contains three tiers and as many as 60 arches.

Kavala's busy port road

Runs directly underneath two of them.

A narrow canal runs along the top tier.

Water from the nearby mountains

Used to stream along the canal

And feed into fountains located around the town.

At first glance, the kamares looks to date

From ancient times,

And indeed it is built over an older structure

That was erected by the romans.

But the main structure was built 500 years ago,

By order of the greatest ottoman sultan,

Suleiman the magnificent.

(birds chirping)

(serene music)

The aqueduct is no longer in active use,

But it remains the most recognized sight in kavala.

(majestic music)

The mighty pindus mountain range

Dominates the landscape of northern greece.

Nestled within these forbidding peaks

Is a lake district of extraordinary beauty.

This lake on mount tymfi is known as drakolimni,

Or dragon lake.

The lake has long been associated

With magic and mystery.

Local legends say that two dragons

Once lived in these mountains.

(dramatic music)

They fought, constantly hurling rocks

And pine trees at one another, smashing holes in the earth

And creating the enchanting environment that we see today.

Of course, it's just a myth.

But a kind of dragon does inhabit these lakes.

The alpine newt is a type of amphibious lizard

That loves mountainous regions with easy access to water.

(gentle upbeat music)

You can't see them from the air,

But they're all over this landscape,

Averaging just four inches in length.

Local people even refer to them as little dragons.

They are probably the reason why this pool is named

Dragon lake.

(majestic music)

Not far from dragon lake,

Lies another place of jaw-dropping beauty.

This is greece's answer to the grand canyon,

The magnificent vikos gorge,

Cutting through the pindus mountains

For a distance of around 12 miles.

Far below,

A dry riverbed snakes its way along the gorge floor.

In summer the voidomatis river dries up completely,

But when winter comes

It will run through the gorge once again.

Vikos gorge is actually much smaller than the grand canyon.

But it still makes "the guinness book of records."

Relative to its width,

It is actually the deepest gorge in the world.

(ominous music)

At its lowest, it plunges to a depth of 1,600 feet.

The ancient greek philosopher heraclitus said,

"the road up and the road down is one and the same."

It's a quote that suits the vikos gorge perfectly.

No matter where you walk or look, in any season,

You find the same wild beauty.

(gentle playful music) (birds chirping)

East of vikos gorge, the landscape gives way

To a mini-museum of rural architecture.

Tumbling down a green hillside,

Kipoi village is a jumble of old houses,

Stone roofs, and arched facades.

Pretty much everything here is made of stone

From the surrounding mountains.

Kipoi is one of a network of over 40 traditional villages

That dot this landscape,

Giving it a mystical, storybook feel.

The population has dwindled in many villages,

Like the quiet and romantic dilofo.

But now, tourism is revitalizing the area.

(dramatic music)

This region is known as zagori,

Meaning beyond the mountains, because this remote area

Never truly came under the rule of outsiders.

And during world war ii, zagori won a surprise victory,

Using a secret weapon.

(gentle thoughtful music)

Narrator: Many greeks

Know zagori best for its heroic defense

Against the forces of fascism in world war 2.

On a lonely hilltop, an imposing figure stands sentinel

Against the blue mountains.

It might not look like a war memorial,

But that's exactly what it is.

It commemorates the indomitable women of this region

And their contribution to the greek war effort

During world war ii.

(suspenseful music)

In the autumn of 1940,

Italian forces advanced through these mountains

Where they were met by the greek army.

The women of zagori provided vital support,

Carrying boxes of ammunition and food to the frontline.

With the women's help,

The greek troops managed to stave off the italian assault.

(dramatic music)

The statue was erected in 1993 and stands 20 feet tall.

A fitting tribute to the women who endured so much

To defend greece against fascism.

An equally unique feature

Can be found in the pindus mountains,

A road that's said to be

One of the most dangerous in the world.

(ominous music)

Anyone who plans to negotiate the route

Between perdikaki and patiopoulo had better take care.

(truck whirring)

The rough surface, hairpin turns, and absence of guardrails

Combine to make the road a treacherous proposition.

In the summer, sheep graze on the mountains,

And farmers dimitris kappes and dimitris zikas

Need to take this hazardous route to reach their flocks.

On some sections, there's a sheer drop on both sides.

Today it's clear but rain and heavy mist descend frequently,

Turning the route into a death-trap.

(dramatic music)

The farmers have to make this hazardous journey every day.

(upbeat music)

The island of corfu has long been a tourist hotspot.

Corfu has a population of just 100,000 people,

But in an ordinary year

It can attract up to a million tourists.

And yet a sense of individuality and independence

Has always set corfu apart.

Maybe because it was one of the few parts of greece

In the entire balkan region

Never to fall under the rule of the ottoman empire.

(majestic music)

That's partly due to the island's impressive defenses.

A powerful citadel, the old fort, overlooks the harbor.

(gentle upbeat music)

But even it pales in comparison to the mighty new fort,

Built by the venetians in the 16th and 17th centuries.

In 1716, a ferocious storm broke over corfu town.

(dramatic music)

Locals reported seeing spyridon, the island's patron saint,

Brandishing a flaming sword.

Many believed it was divine intervention

Because, at that very time,

30,000 turkish soldiers were besieging corfu town.

The storm wrecked the turkish fleet,

Forcing the attackers to withdraw.

The islanders had called on saint spyridon to save them,

And it seems their prayers were answered.

(suspenseful music)

Whatever the truth, they survived the siege of corfu.

Today, the island's sense of independence remains undimmed.

But it has a surprising connection

To a foreign institution,

The british royal family.

(regal orchestral music)

Narrator: Corfu is closely linked with a foreign family,

That happens to be the most famous in the world.

Just south of corfu town,

An impressive villa stands surrounded by woodland.

Mon repos palace was built in 1826,

As a summer residence for the island's governor.

On June 10, 1921,

The nephew of king constantine I of greece was born here.

He was named prince philip of greece and denmark,

But he's better known today simply as prince philip,

The spouse of queen elizabeth ii.

(gentle pensive music)

You might think a royal baby born into privilege

Would have a trouble -free childhood.

(water splashing)

It didn't turn out that way for philip.

In 1922, constantine I

Was forced to abdicate as king of greece.

With the greek royal family under threat,

18-month-old philip and his parents

Fled corfu on a british naval vessel.

Legend has it that they carried the infant aboard

In a makeshift cot, made from an orange crate.

These days philip is the oldest member

Of the british royal family,

And he always seems to have impeccable british credentials.

But he has never forgotten his greek origins.

Neither have plenty of other people,

Who often call him phil the greek.

(gentle music)

Tucked away in the southwest corner of corfu

Is the island's longest

And perhaps most beautiful stretch of shoreline.

The waters of issos beach are so clear

That the seabed can be seen from the air.

So far, it's avoided being swamped by mass tourism,

Thanks largely to its unique setting.

Korission lake separates issos from most of the mainland,

So no hotels have been built on the beach.

That's one reason it was the location

For another iconic scene from the bond movie

"for your eyes only."

(gentle upbeat music)

In the film, bond goes to corfu

And spends the night with the beautiful countess lisl.

Afterwards, the pair go for a romantic walk on the beach

But are interrupted by the evil henchman locque.

(dramatic music) (buggy engine revving)

The henchman and his goons

Chase them across the beach in dune buggies.

(buggy engine revving)

Bond and the countess get separated.

(buggy engine revving)

The countess tries to escape by running along the shoreline,

But locque ruthlessly runs her down.

(buggy engine revving) (dramatic music continues)

Bond is captured,

But, of course, he lives to fight another day.

(buggy engine revving)

Many consider "for your eyes only"

The best of roger moore's bond films.

And corfu was an ideal location

For the blend of action and romance.

(relaxed music)

It's not surprising that james bond found love here.

There's something about the island

That stimulates attraction.

One place, in particular, is famous for it.

Near cape drastis at corfu's north-western tip,

The water slices through layers of sandstone

To create a tiny cove.

This is the canal d'amour, or channel of love,

Formed by many years of wind and water erosion.

Surrounded by gold-tinged cliffs

And ending at a small beach,

The setting couldn't be more idyllic or romantic.

Legend has it that if a couple swims

Through the canal together, their love will last forever.

Demetris mitrakas and fotini grammenou

Decide to put this to the test.

(relaxed music continues)

And if you're single that's okay too, another legend says

That anyone who swims through the passage

Will meet the love of their life.

(tense music)

But while many like to frolic in the water,

There are some who prefer to dance on air.

(gentle majestic music)

Deep within the pindus mountains

Is a place where earth, sky, and water

Meet in a dramatic set-piece.

Kremasta lake is an artificial lake, created in the 1960s.

But it is most famous for the bridge that spans it.

Tatarna bridge is a box girder bridge over 1,500 feet long.

Completed in 1973,

It was built on the site of an older stone bridge.

When the greeks rose up against their ottoman rulers

In the 1820s, an important battle was fought here.

But today, the stage is set for a very different spectacle

By one of greece's most unusual performers.

Katerina soldatou is an aerial dancer.

(gentle upbeat music)

She performs in mid-air suspended from the bridge above.

A pioneer of this dance form, katerina is the founder

Of greece's first aerial dance school.

(gentle upbeat music continues)

She was once a track and field athlete,

But she found aerial dance

Even more exciting than competition.

As katerina performs, she may feel like aeolus,

The god of the wind.

Legend has it that he makes his home right here

In northern greece.

(gentle majestic music)

Katerina says dancing gives her a sense

Of total weightlessness

That is both terrifying and liberating.

(upbeat majestic music)

But more than anything, she dances to make people aware

Of greece's stunning natural environment and history.

(gentle majestic music)

She calls this project "greece has soul."

A timely reminder of how incredible this country is

And why it must be preserved forever.