10 Facts About Mount Athos

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 AD 800 and the Byzantine era.

The Athonite monasteries feature a rich collection of well-preserved artifacts, rare books, ancient documents, and artworks of immense historical value, and Mount Athos has been listed as a World Heritage Site since 1988.

The Athos peninsula, unlike Sithonia and Kassandra, is a geological continuation of the Rhodope Mountains of northern Greece and Bulgaria.

Mount Athos has an extensive network of footpaths, many of which date back to the Byzantine period.

Daily visitors to Mount Athos are restricted to 100 lay Orthodox and 10 non-Orthodox male pilgrims, and all are required to obtain a special entrance permit from the Mount Athos Pilgrims' Bureau called the diamonitirion .

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In Greek mythology, Mount Athos is the name of one of the Gigantes that challenged the Greek gods during the Gigantomachia.

The historian Genesios recorded that monks from Mount Athos participated at the seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea of 787.

From 985 to 1287, there was a Benedictine monastery on Mount Athos known as Amalphion after the people of Amalfi who founded it.

In June 1913, a small Russian fleet, consisting of the gunboat Donets and the transport ships Tsar and Kherson, delivered the archbishop of Vologda, and a number of troops to Mount Athos to intervene in the theological controversy over imiaslavie .

Much of Mount Athos is covered with mixed broadleaf deciduous and evergreen forests.