The chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe near Le Puy-en-Velay, in southern France. The building is over 1,000 years old and stands on a volcanic plug 280 feet tall. Photo / Getty Images
The chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe near Le Puy-en-Velay, in southern France. The building is over 1,000 years old and stands on a volcanic plug 280 feet tall. Photo / Getty Images
If you don't have a head for heights, these pictures might give you sweaty palms.
That's because they show some of the world's most precariously perched structures – monasteries, temples, churches, castles and houses placed on rocky outcrops and cliff edges by builders with nerves of steel.
Some are soinaccessible that only those with a jet pack or serious rock climbing skills can visit.
Amazingly, some of the buildings featured here have stood strong in the same place for hundreds and even thousands of years, despite their seemingly hazardous locations.
One of the oldest most precariously perched buildings is the Hanging Temple of Shanxi, which was built into a cliff face in China in 491.
Other surely-that's-not-safe structures include the chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe near Le Puy-en-Velay, in southern France, which is built on a volcanic plug, and the Monastery of the Holy Trinity perched high on top of a rock in Meteora in central Greece. Scroll down – and hold on!
Nugget Point Lighthouse: One of the most recognisable landmarks on the south island of New Zealand. Photo / Getty Images
Don't look down: Castellfollit de la Roca is a picturesque medieval village built on a basalt column in north eastern Spain. Photo / Getty Images
The Swallow's Nest castle on a rock over the Black Sea in Crimea. Photo / Getty Images
The Hanging Temple was built into the side of a cliff near near Mount Heng in Shanxi Province, China, in 491. They definitely don't make 'em like they used to. Photo / Getty Images
The incredible Popa Taungkalat temple, which sits on top of Popa Mountain in Myanmar. Visitors have to brave 777 steps as well as wild monkeys to reach the top. Photo / Getty Images
Behold this incredible church, which stands on top of the 130ft-high Katskhi Pillar in Georgia. Photo / Getty Images
The chapel of Saint-Michel d'Aiguilhe near Le Puy-en-Velay, in southern France. The building is over 1,000 years old and stands on a volcanic plug 280 feet tall. Photo / Getty Images
The dramatic ruined Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven, Scotland, doesn't score quite as highly as some of the others but still, building it must have been treacherous. Photo / Getty Images
Holy Trinity: Meteora in central Greece is home to several stunning, precariously perched monasteries. Photo / Getty Images
