There are a number of views regarding the etymology of the name:[3] The gorge is found in the core zone of the Vikos–Aoös National Park, in the Zagori region.

Numerous gullies dissect both sides of the gorge and the movement of water detaching various rocky materials creates extended screes.

The gorge, with a northwest-southeast direction,[8] has been carved over millions of years by the Vikos Stream and its continuation, the Voidomatis River, a tributary of the Aoös (Vjosa).

As the Vikos Gorge is a deep cross section of the mountain, its slopes expose a series of rock formations of various ages.

[12] During the large Middle Pleistocene glaciations, surface runoff from glacial meltwaters would have fed directly into the river channel network because much of the upland limestone terrain was covered by ice, and many conduits in the karst would have been choked with sediment or permanently frozen.

[15] The plants used in these recipes include the lemon balm Melissa officinalis, Tilia tomentosa, the spearmint Mentha spicata, the gas-plant Dictamnus albus, St John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum, absinth Artemisia absinthium, the very popular Sideritis raeseri, known colloquially in Greece as “mountain tea”, and the elder bush Sambucus nigra.

[19][20] There is a natural viewing platform over the deepest part of the gorge at Oxia, a location 8 km by a newly constructed road from the village of Monodendri.

[21] During the 9th–4th centuries B.C., a small Molossian settlement existed between Monodendri and Vitsa, including stone houses and two cemeteries that have yielded important findings.