Carved by the Treska River into the limestone bedrock just 15 kilometres southwest of Skopje's city centre, Matka Canyon is one of the oldest and most dramatically beautiful natural landscapes in the Balkans. The gorge stretches for roughly 17 kilometres and shelters over 10 medieval monasteries and churches clinging to cliff faces, making it simultaneously a geological wonder and a repository of Macedonian Orthodox heritage that stretches back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The canyon's name is thought to derive from the old Slavic word for 'womb', and once you're inside it — surrounded by vertical walls rising up to 1,000 metres, with the river threading silently below — the etymology feels instinctively right.
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