Athos

Athos (Gr. Hagion Oros, It. Monte Santo, 'Holy Hill'), the most eastern of the three tongues of the Chalcidice Peninsula on the Ægean Sea, connected with the mainland by a low and narrow isthmus, about a mile across. The length of the peninsula is about 31 miles; its breadth varies from 3 to 6 miles. At the southern extremity, a solitary peak rises abruptly to a height of 6346 feet above the sea. In ancient times, several towns were built on the peninsula, five being mentioned by Herodotus. The Persian king Xerxes cut a canal through the isthmus, to escape the stormy gales which rendered the navigation round the promontory very perilous, and which had shattered the fleet of Mardonius some years before. Traces of this canal still exist. This peninsula is celebrated as the seat of a kind of monastic republic, consisting of twenty large monasteries, besides numerous hermitages and chapels. The entire number of monks who inhabit the 'Holy Hill' is about 6000. The whole community is governed by an administrative body of four presidents, one styled 'First Man of Athos,' and a representative body called the Holy Synod, consisting of twenty members, one from each monastery. They enjoy complete autonomy, subject to paying the Turkish government an annual tribute of about £3500. The monks follow the rule of St Basil, and lead an ascetic life, restricting their diet to herbs, fruits, and fish. They are employed in agriculture, gardening, the care of bees, and the manufacture of amulets, religious objects, and wooden articles of furniture, which they sell, while they also reap profits from the numerous visits of pilgrims. Caryes, the principal place in the peninsula, is picturesque situated in the midst of vineyards and gardens, and has 1000 inhabitants. Here the market is held; but no female, even of the lower animals, is permitted to be present, or even to enter the peninsula. In the middle ages, Athos was the centre of Greek learning and Christian-Byzantine art. Now learning is at a very low ebb; scarcely more than two or three monks of tolerable education can be found in a monastery. The libraries are neglected. See Curzon's Monasteries in the Levant (1849; 6th ed. 1881); Athelstan Riley's Athos (1887); Brockhaus, Die Kunst in den Athos-Klostern (1891).