Mount Athos

Mount Athos is a mountain and a peninsula in Macedonia, northern Greece, called Άγιο Όρος (Ayio Oros or "Holy Mountain") in Modern Greek, or Ἅγιον Ὄρος (Hagion Oros) in Classical Greek. It is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms an autonomous state under Greek sovereignty. Only monks are allowed to live 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 km², with the actual Mount Athos 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.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Peninsula: A peninsula is a geographical formation consisting of an extension of land from a larger body, surrounded by water on three sides....

Macedonia: Maced?nia (derived from the place name Macedonia) is a municipality (munic?pio) in the state of S?o Paulo in Brazil. Its coordinates are . The population in 2004 is 3,661, the area is 330.18 km² The elevation is 502 m....

Modern Greek: Modern Greek (Νεοελληνική, lit. Neo-Hellenic) is a dialect family that refers to the fifth stage of the evolution of the Greek language (the first four being Mycenean, Ancient Greek, Post-Classical or Hellenistic Greek and Medieval Greek), and i...

Mount Athos related Images and Photos (experimental)

Mount Fuji	Mount Rainier	Mount Rushmore	Mount Hood OR
Mount Fuji Japan	Anson Mount	Mount Tacoma Noon	Mount Kenya - Top Hut
Mount Vesuvius c.1985	Mount St. Helen's Erupts	Mount Egmont New Zealand	Mount Mansfield Ski Resort