ABSTRACT
Mount Athos is the center of spirituality for the Orthodox Christian world. It is a peninsula in northern Greece, the most easterly of Halkidiki’s three prongs, about 56 kilometers long and not more than about 8 kilometers wide. About 6 kilometers south of the isthmus there is a wall marking the frontier which runs across the peninsula. Beyond it the ground rises steeply to wooded peaks of 500 and 600 meters. Karyes, the capital, stands more or less in the middle of the peninsula, and beyond it the woods turn to scrub and then to bare rock as the slopes rise, and eventually peak at 2,030 meters before dropping suddenly to the sea at the southern tip. Athos is dedicated to the glorification of the Mother of God, whose garden it is considered to be. She alone represents her sex there, which is why Athos is closed to women. For more than a thousand years it has been the carefully guarded preserve of Orthodox monks.
