Karpenisi to Prousos Road

A vertiginous shelf road into the Evrytania gorges.

South of Karpenisi, the road to the cliff-clinging Prousos (Proussos) monastery is one of the most dramatic in mainland Greece, carved as a narrow shelf through the Kleidi gorge in the Evrytania highlands. It leaves the Karpenisi basin and drops along the Karpenisiotis river, the asphalt pinned to near-vertical rock with short half-tunnels, overhangs and unguarded edges above the canyon, before reaching the monastery wedged into the cliff face. It is paved but tight and exposed, with blind bends and barely room to pass in the gorge's narrowest stretches. The scenery, fir-clad peaks, deep ravines and the river far below, is the reward for slow, careful driving. Mind rockfall and fallen debris in the gorge, single-lane sections with sheer drops, and ice and damp in the shaded narrows.