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Mount Athos

799 bytes added, 09:30, May 9, 2016
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[[Image:Athos.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Mount Athos as seen from the ridge road]]
'''Mount Athos''' is a mountain and a peninsula in Macedonia, northern Greece, called <font lang="el">&#902;&#947;&#953;&#959; &#908;&#961;&#959;&#962;</font> (''Ayio Oros'' or "Holy Mountain") in Modern Greek, or <font lang="el">&#x1F0D;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#957; &#x1F4C;&#961;&#959;&#962;</font> (''Hagion Oros'') in Classical Greek. It is home to 20 [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[monastery|monasteries]] and forms an autonomous state under Greek sovereignty. Only [[monasticism|monks]] are allowed to live establish permanent residency on Athos and the current population numbers around 1,400. The peninsula, the easternmost "leg" of the larger Chalkidiki peninsula, protrudes into the Aegean Sea for some 60 km at a width between 7 to 12 km and covers an area of about 390 km&sup2;, with the actual mountain and its steep, densely forested slopes reaching up to 2,033 m.
The seas around the end of the peninsula can be dangerous. Xerxes I had a channel excavated across the isthmus to allow the passage of his invasion fleet in 483 BC.
Politically the peninsula is mostly self-governed and consists of 20 main monasteries and the capital city and administrative centre, [[Karyes (Athos)|Karyes]], also home to a governor as the representative of the Greek state. Beyond the monasteries there are 12 ''[[skete|sketae]]'', smaller communities of monks, as well as many (solitary) hermitages throughout the peninsula. Visits to the peninsula are possible for laymen, but they need [http://www.mountathosinfos.gr/pages/agionoros/pilgrims_info.en.html special permission].
Women are completely barred from the peninsula, a fact which has earned a certain amount of fame; even female domestic animals (with the exception, some say, of cats, as well as chickens which lay eggs that provide the fresh egg yolk needed for the paint used in [[iconography]]) are forbidden. However, during the Greek Civil War, Athos did shelter refugees including women and girls. [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010209.html]The reason for the ban is a canon forbidding male visitors to enter female monasteries, and female visitors to male monasteries. While not observed in most monasteries today, Athos is by no means unique in its enforcement of the rule. Unique to Athos is the fact that, due to the whole peninsula being devoted to the monastic vocation, the rule is observed also outside the monastery walls.
In modern times, the Mount Athos monasteries have repeatedly been struck by wildfires, e.g. in August 1990, and in March 2004, fire gutted a large section of the Serbian monastery, [[Chilandari Monastery (Athos)|Chilandari]]. Due to the secluded locations of the monasteries, often atop small hills, as well as the unavailability of suitable fire fighting gear, the damages inflicted by these fires are often considerable.
* [[Esphigmenou Monastery (Athos)|Esphigmenou Monastery]]
* [[St. Panteleimon's Monastery (Athos)|St. Panteleimon's Monastery]]
* [[Konstamonitou Monastery (Athos)|Konstamonitou Monastery]]|
| width="33%" align="left" valign="top"|'''The Sketes'''<br />
* [[St. John the Baptist Skete (Athos)|St. John the Baptist Skete]]
* [[Prodromou Skete (Athos)|Prodromou Skete]]
* [[St. Anne's Skete (Athos)|St. Anne's Skete]]
* [[St. Basil's Skete (Athos)|St. Basil's Skete]]
* [[Provata Skete (Athos)|Provata Skete]]<br /><br />
 
'''Associated Monasteries'''<br />
* [[Cenobium of the Annunciation (Ormylia, Chalkidiki)]]
*[[Monastery of St. John the Theologian - Souroti]]
|}
 
<!--==Public figures: Saints, Elders and Teachers==
*[http://www.ortodoksi.net/tietopankki/luostarit/athos/exhibition_en.htm Athos - Monastic life on the Holy Mountain (exhibition)]
*[http://www.doaks.org/typikaPDF/typ017.pdf Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents]. Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
*[http://www.vcarious.com/Travel-Guide/Greece/MountAthos.html Information for Pilgrims]
*[http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/12/athos/draper-text Called to the Holy Mountain: The Monks of Mount Athos] by Robert Draper, photographs by Travis Dove, from ''National Geographic''
*[http://www.chotki.com/Mount-Athos/ Holy Mount Athos]
[[Category:Featured Articles]]
[[ar:جبل آثوس]]
[[el:Άγιο Όρος]]
[[es:Monte Athos]]
[[fr:République monastique du Mont Athos]]
[[mk:Света Гора]]
[[ro:Muntele Athos]]
[[ru:Святая гора Афон]]
[[sr:Света Гора]]
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