Mount Athos

Coordinates: 40°09′30″N 24°19′38″E / 40.15833°N 24.32722°E / 40.15833; 24.32722
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This article is about the mountain in Greece. For the Eastern Orthodox monastic community and the autonomous region of Greece, see Monastic community of Mount Athos. For other uses, see Athos.

Mount Athos
Ultra
Coordinates40°09′30″N 24°19′38″E / 40.15833°N 24.32722°E / 40.15833; 24.32722
Geography
LocationEurope
CountryGreece
RegionAgio Oros
Europe

Mount Athos (/ˈæθɒs/; Greek: Ἄθως [ˈa.θos]) is a mountain on the Athos peninsula in northeastern Greece. It is an important center of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. The mountain and most of the Athos peninsula are governed as an autonomous region in Greece by the monastic community of Mount Athos, which is ecclesiastically under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople. The remainder of the peninsula forms part of the Aristotelis municipality. Women are prohibited from entering the area governed by the monastic community by Greek law and by religious tradition.[2]

Mount Athos has been inhabited since ancient times and is known for its long Christian presence and historical monastic traditions, which date back to at least 800 AD during the

World Heritage List in 1988.[3]

Names

In the

Agio Oros (Greek: Άγιο Όρος) translating to 'Holy Mountain' is also used.[4]

Some languages of Orthodox tradition use names that translate to 'Holy Mountain', including Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian (Света Гора, Sveta Gora), and Georgian (მთაწმინდა, mtats’minda). However, not all languages spoken in the Eastern Orthodox world use this name: in the East Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian) it is simply called Афон (Afon, meaning "Athos"), while in Romanian it is called "Mount Athos" (Muntele Athos or Muntele Atos).[citation needed]

Geography

Mount Athos - view from northwest

The peninsula, the easternmost "leg" of the larger

Macedonia, protrudes 50 km (31 mi)[5] into the Aegean Sea at a width of between 7 and 12 km (4.3 and 7.5 mi) and covers an area of 335.6 km2 (130 sq mi). The actual Mount Athos has steep, densely forested slopes reaching up to 2,033 m (6,670 ft). The Athos peninsula, unlike Sithonia and Kassandra, is a geological continuation of the Rhodope Mountains of northern Greece and Bulgaria.[6]

The surrounding seas, especially at the end of the peninsula, can be dangerous. In ancient Greek history, two fleet disasters in the area are recorded: Herodotus claimed that in 492 BC,

Mardonius.[7] In 411 BC the Spartans lost a fleet of 50 ships under the admiral Epicleas.[8]

Mount Athos has an extensive

Byzantine period. Many are typically not accessible to motor vehicle traffic.[9]

Flora

Much of Mount Athos is covered with

Oriental plane, and alder trees.[11]

Aleppo pine (

fritillary species.[12]

At least 35 plant species are endemic to Mount Athos, most of which are found in the area of the main summit in the south.

woad subspecies, and Viola athois are named after Mount Athos.[12]

Mount Athos is also home to 350 species of mushrooms.[14][15][16][17][18]

Fauna

Mammals include the

Monachus monachus).[10] Other mammal species include roe deer, hares, and red squirrels.[19]

Birds include the black stork (

nightingales, and hoopoes.[19]

History

A 3D model of Athos

Antiquity

Imaginary view of the Alexander monument, proposed by Dinocrates. Engraving by Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, 1725

In

Gigantomachia. Athos threw a massive rock at Poseidon which fell in the Aegean Sea and became Mount Athos.[22] According to another version of the story, Poseidon used the mountain to bury the defeated giant.[citation needed
]

Akanthos (Acanthus). Some of these cities minted their own coins.[citation needed
]

The peninsula was on the invasion route of Xerxes I, who spent three years[27] excavating the Xerxes Canal across the isthmus to allow the passage of his invasion fleet in 483 BC. After the death of Alexander the Great, the architect Dinocrates (Deinokrates) proposed carving the entire mountain into a statue of Alexander.

Pliny the Elder stated in 77 AD that the inhabitants of Mount Athos could "live to their four hundredth year" due to the fact that they eat the skin of vipers.[28]

The lack of historical accounts shrouds the history of the peninsula during the later ages. Archaeologists have not been able to determine the exact location of the cities reported by Strabo. It is believed that they must have been deserted when Athos' new inhabitants, the monks, started arriving sometime before the ninth century AD.[29]

Early Christianity

The peninsula as seen from the summit of Mount Athos

According to the Athonite tradition, the

Blessed Virgin Mary was sailing accompanied by St John the Evangelist from Joppa to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. When the ship was blown off course to then-pagan Athos, it was forced to anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the mountain's wonderful and wild natural beauty, she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden. A voice was heard saying, "Ἔστω ὁ τόπος οὗτος κλῆρος σὸς καὶ περιβόλαιον σὸν καὶ παράδεισος, ἔτι δὲ καὶ λιμὴν σωτήριος τῶν θελόντων σωθῆναι" (Translation: "Let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved"). From that moment the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and was out of bounds to all other women.[note 1]

Historical documents on ancient Mount Athos history are very few. Monks have certainly been there since the fourth century, and possibly since the third. During

Constantine I's reign (324–337) both Christians and followers of traditional Greek religion were living there. During the reign of Julian (361–363), the churches of Mount Athos were destroyed, and Christians hid in the woods and inaccessible places.[30]

Later, during

Islamic conquest of Egypt in the seventh century, many Orthodox monks from the Egyptian desert tried to find another calm place; some of them came to the Athos peninsula. An ancient document states that monks "built huts of wood with roofs of straw ... and by collecting fruit from the wild trees were providing themselves improvised meals."[31]

Byzantine era and onwards

Further information: Monastic community of Mount Athos § History

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mount Athos.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Mount Athos.

Notes

  1. ^ St Gregory Palamas included this tradition in his book Life of Petros the Athonite, p. 150, 1005 AD.

References

  1. ^ "Mount Athos Home". Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2016.
  2. ^ Why, Who, What (27 May 2016). "Why are women banned from Mount Athos?". BBC. Archived from the original on 14 February 2023. Retrieved 11 June 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ "Mount Athos". UNESCO World Heritage Convention. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Archived from the original on 15 January 2021. Retrieved 30 October 2022.
  4. ISBN 978-0-19-257106-9. Archived
    from the original on 21 June 2023. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
  5. ^ Robert Draper, "Mount Athos" Archived 11 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine, National Geographic magazine, December 2009
  6. OCLC 903320491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  7. ^ Herodotus, Histories, book VI ("Erato"); Aeschylus, The Persians.
  8. ^ Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca historica XIII 41, 1–3.
  9. ^ "Footpaths of the Holy Mountain – FOMA". FOMA. 6 January 2019. Archived from the original on 16 June 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  10. ^ a b UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (22 May 2017). "Mount Athos". World Heritage Datasheet. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 10 June 2022.
  11. OCLC 903320491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  12. ^
    OCLC 903320491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  13. ^ Ganiatsas, K. (2003). I vlastesis kai i chloris tis chersonesou tou Agiou Orous.
  14. OCLC 503441715
    .
  15. ^ S. Dafis, ‘Anthrōpines drastēriotētes kai fysiko perivallon’, in S. Dafis et al. (eds.), Fysekai Perivallon sto Agion Oros, Thessalonica, 1998.
  16. ^ G. Sideropoulos, Agion Oros: anafores stēn anthropogeōgrafia, Athens, 2000, p. 28.
  17. ^ O. Rackham, ‘Our Lady’s Garden: the historical ecology of the Holy Mountain’, Friends of Mount Athos, Annual Report (2000), p. 50.
  18. ^ D. Babalonas, ‘Chlōrida kai endemismos tou Agiou Orous’, in M. Parcharidou and M. Fountoulēs (eds.), Agion Oros: fysē, latreia, technē, Vol. I, Thessalonica, 1999, p. 119.
  19. ^
    OCLC 903320491.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  20. ^ Grimmett, R. & Jones, T. (eds) (1989). Important Bird Areas in Europe. Technical Publication #9, ICBP, Cambridge, U.K.
  21. ^ Heath, M. & Evans, M. (eds) (2000). Important Bird Areas in Europe: Priority Sites for Conservation Vol.2. BirdLife International, Cambridge, U.K.
  22. ^ "Mythology and History of Chalkidiki (Halkidiki)". chalkidiki.com. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 8 November 2023.
  23. ^ Homer, Iliad 14,229.
  24. ^ Herodotus, Histories 6,44.
  25. ^ Herodotus, Histories 7,22.
  26. ^ Strabo, Geography 7,33,1.
  27. ^ Warry, J. (1998), Warfare in the Classical World, Salamander Book Ltd., London, p. 35
  28. ^ Pliny the Elder. [1] Archived 29 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on 30 October 2021.
  29. ISBN 978-960-213-199-2
    .
  30. ISBN 0-300-093535
    .
  31. ^ Biography of Saint Athanasius the Athonite

External links

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