Greece
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a holy mountain that has been the spiritual centre of the Orthodox world since 1054.
The forest-clad slopes of Mount Athos lie on a peninsula in the Aegean Sea. This self-administered area, which is forbidden to women and children, includes 20 monasteries that have been influential on religious architecture and iconographic painting. Mount Athos is also home to 12 "sketes", communities of Christian hermits.
Community Perspective: Several male community members have succeeded in entering: Solivagant (in 1965!), Bojan (a Serbian perspective), Tsunami (at Orthodox Easter), Nan (has well-described the practicalities involved), Alexander (comes with some warnings). For the females, only a sightseeing boat trip is available as detailed by Els.
Site Info
Official Information
- Full Name
- Mount Athos (ID: 454)
- Country
- Greece
- Status
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Inscribed 1988
Site history
History of Mount Athos
- 1988: Inscribed
- Inscribed
- WHS Type
- Mixed
- Criteria
- i
- ii
- iv
- v
- vi
- vii
Links
- UNESCO
- whc.unesco.org
All Links
UNESCO.org
- whc.unesco.org — whc.unesco.org/
Related Resources
- huffingtonpost.com — Inside The 'Holy Mountain': Exploring The Unseen World Of Mount Athos
- odysseus.culture.gr — Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism
- mountathos.co.uk — Link
- abacus.bates.edu — Link
- inathos.gr — Link
- sacredsites.com — Link
News Article
- April 29, 2019 theguardian.com — Ukraine-Russia tensions reach Greece’s holy Mount Athos
- Aug. 9, 2012 boston.com — Fire at Mount Athos spreads
Community Information
- Community Category
- Natural landscape: Forest
- Religious structure: Christian
Travel Information
Needs a Ferry
Discriminatory Entry Policies
Thessaloniki hotspot
Recent Connections
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Perfect Inscriptions
1988 -
Needs a Ferry
Two ferry companies operate regular pas… -
Depicted in Mizielinska Maps
The Holy Monastery of DionysiouSee i.…
Connections of Mount Athos
- Individual People
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King Charles III
The Prince visits Vatopedi monastery fairly regularly for spiritual reasons and has contributed to its restoration
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- Geography
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Mediterranean shore
"excellent preservation of the Mediterranean forests" (OUV) -
Peninsula
occupies the vast majority of the Akte or Athos Peninsula -
Aegean Sea
"the property includes the entire narrow rocky strip of the easternmost of the three peninsulas of Chalcidice which jut into the Aegean Sea" (official description)
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- Trivia
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Depicted in Mizielinska Maps
The Holy Monastery of DionysiouSee i.pinimg.com
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- History
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Mentioned by Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder stated in 77AD that the inhabitants of Mount Athos could "live to their four hundredth year" due to the fact that they eat the skin of vipers. (wiki) -
Byzantine Empire and Civilization
The first monasteries were built by the Byzantines.See en.wikipedia.org
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- Ecology
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Seals
The presence of the persecuted monk seal Monachus monachus (CR) was reported in 2006 (UNESCO/WHC,2006a) possibly from lairs on Piperi in the Northern Sporades Marine Park. (UNEP-WCMC) -
Gray Wolf
See athosweblog.com
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- Architecture
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Vernacular architecture
a treasury of vernacular architecture (UNEP-WCMC) -
Designed by or influenced Le Corbusier
Said to have influenced the design for the Priory of Ste Marie de la Tourette -
Mosaic art
mosaics (totalling some 100,000 square metres) (UNEP-WCMC)
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- Damaged
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Cultural sites damaged by fire since inscription
Chilandar monastery - Mar 2004
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- World Heritage Process
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Both cultural masterpiece and superlative natural beauty
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Perfect Inscriptions
1988 -
Mixed sites inscribed on 5 or more criteria
Criteria: i/ii/iv/v/vi/vii. 6 - 5 Cultural, 1 Natural
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- Religion and Belief
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Lavra
Great Lavra (Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople) -
Christian Pilgrimage Sites
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 (wiki) -
Relics from John the Baptist
"parts" of John the Baptist are held in Prodromos Skete (Prodromos means "forerunner" i.e. John the Baptist) -
Russian Orthodox churches outside Russia
Saint Panteleimon Monastery (and hence its Katholikon or main church) is Russian Orthodox. -
Sacred Mountains
the sacred mountain of Athos became the principal spiritual home of the Orthodox Church in 1054 (OUV) -
Marian Shrines
The entire mountain is known as the "Garden of the Mother of God" and its Marian connections are the reason for its existance as a holy site - "According to the legend Panagia, the Virgin Mary and Mother of God, was sailing accompanied by St John the Evangelist on her way from Joppa to Cyprus to visit Lazarus. When the ship was blown out of course to then pagan Athos it was forced to drop anchor near the port of Klement, close to the present monastery of Iviron. The Virgin walked ashore and, overwhelmed by the wonderful and wild natural beauty of the mountain she blessed it and asked her Son for it to be her garden. A voice was heard; "let this place be your inheritance and your garden, a paradise and a haven of salvation for those seeking to be saved". Since that moment the mountain was consecrated as the garden of the Mother of God and is out of bounds to any other women. " -
Fortified religious buildings
"The entire guarding and defending system was pointed towards the enemy coming from the sea. He came up against the fortification of the shore (fortified harbors and towers), then against the fortifications of the monasteries that could held out until the outside help arrived. During the Ottoman domination there was an army body to protect the monasteries."
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- Human Activity
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Musical Notation
Its library has several significant manuscripts in the Byzantine notation. -
Piracy
"perpetual pirate attacks" -
Olive Tree Landscapes
"In past centuries, a large part of the Athos peninsula was cultivated, mainly with vineyards and olive groves. Today, most of these have been abandoned and have reverted to forest." (area has both cultivated and wild olive groves)See whc.unesco.org
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Crown Jewels
The crown of the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus Phocas (963-969) is in the Great Lavra monastery on Mount Athos -
Vineyards
Tsantali vineyard at Saint Panteleimon MonasterySee www.tsantali.com
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- Constructions
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Ossuary
In the ProdomosSee en.wikipedia.org
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Cultural sites connected to Cliffs
"Over 1,000 monks live there in communities or alone, as well as in the 'desert' of Karoulia where cells cling to the cliff face rising steeply above the sea." (AB ev) -
Canals
Xerxes Canal (now only remains)See www.livius.org
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- WHS on Other Lists
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Natura 2000
GR1270003 Chersonisos Athos -
Biodiversity hotspot
Mediterranean Basin
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- Timeline
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Late Pleistocene
The mediterranean coniferous forest evolved after the end of the last glaciation in Greece during the Heinrich Event. -
Built in the 11th century
In 1054, the sacred mountain of Athos, a holy place in the Christian world, became the principal spiritual home of the Orthodox church. (AB ev)
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- WHS Hotspots
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Thessaloniki hotspot
Day tours including a cruise along Mt. Athos are available from Thessaloniki, which lies some 150km away.
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- Science and Technology
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Libraries
A number of the Monasteries on Mt Athos contain significant libraries eg Pantelemion HilandarSee en.wikipedia.org
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- Visiting conditions
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Needs a Ferry
Two ferry companies operate regular passenger services to Mount Athos from Ouranoupoli. -
No road access
"Mount Athos is not connected to the main power grid, for reasons directly relating to its spiritual character, the same reason that decided the Holy Community not to connect the peninsula by road with the mainland." (IUCN outlook 2020) -
Unusual Entry Requirements or Restrictions
Not only is Mt. Athos only accessible to men, it also is necessary to apply for a Diamonitirion. This can be done via e-mail to the Pilgrim's Office, stating the date you want to visit and whether you're an Orthodox Christian or not. There is a limitation to the number of non-pilgrims that can visit per day (10-12). -
Visitor Limits
"If you are a member of the laity (i.e. not ordained), either Orthodox or otherwise, you must organise your visit through the Mt Athos Pilgrim's office in Thessaloniki. Pilgrims are admitted to Athos on a daily basis that is composed of two quotas: 120 Orthodox pilgrims and 10 non-Orthodox visitors may enter Athos each day, " -
Discriminatory Entry Policies
Men Only
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- WHS Names
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Named after a Mountain
Mount Athos 2030m
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- 18
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Location for a classic documentary
Athos (2016) - "With the help of three Athos monks, "Athos - A Taste of Heaven" tells the story of the island and its inhabitants in a unique filmed diary style." (IMDb)
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News
- theguardian.com 04/29/2019
- Ukraine-Russia tensions reach Gree…
- boston.com 08/09/2012
- Fire at Mount Athos spreads
Recent Visitors
Visitors of Mount Athos
- Adrian Turtschi
- Alessandro Votta
- Alexander Lehmann
- Alexander Parsons
- alicemears
- Aljaz
- Allison Vies
- A. Mehmet Haksever
- Andrea Gormley
- Argo
- Artur Anuszewski
- Atila Ege
- Bin
- Can SARICA
- CeeMon
- Cezar Grozavu
- Christer Sundberg
- ClaraHH
- DavidS
- Dimitar Krastev
- dmscanlan
- DouglasR
- Elaine McArdle
- Els Slots
- Erik Jelinek
- Fan Yibo
- Femke Roos
- forest80
- fozzak
- Frank Britton
- Geo
- Harald T.
- Harry Mitsidis
- henrik_hannfors
- Iain Jackson
- Ivan Rucek
- Jacob Choi
- Jancidobso
- janem
- Jarek Pokrzywnicki
- Javier
- Jawnbeary
- Joel on the Road
- john booth
- Jonas Kremer
- Judit Dalla
- Junwang111
- Jun Zhou
- KarenBMoore
- Kbecq
- Kerékgyártó
- Knut
- LaVale
- Linz
- Loic Pedras
- Lucio Gorla
- Maciej Gil
- maryhattie
- Matthewsharris
- Michiel Dekker
- Mikan22
- Mikko
- Milena Tzoneva
- monchan5396
- Monika and Rini
- nan
- Nihal Ege
- orphanos
- Patrik
- Paul Schofield
- Paw90
- PeterA
- Philipp Leu
- Philipp Peterer
- Pieter Dijkshoorn
- Rafał Kałczuga
- Randi Thomsen
- Roger Ourset
- Roman Bruehwiler
- Roman Raab
- Ross Black
- Sabrina Liebehentschel
- Sascha Grabow
- Shandos Cleaver
- SHIHE HUANG
- Socon
- Solivagant
- Stanislaw Warwas
- Svein Elias
- Szucs Tamas
- Tamara Ratz
- Tammy Gouldstone
- Thomas Buechler
- TimAllen
- Tsunami
- Viaje al Patrimonio
- Violeta
- Wojciech Fedoruk
- Yevhen Ivanovych
- Zoë Sheng
Community Reviews
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So this will be the first review of a visit to Mount Athos by a woman! Although a couple of females have succeeded in entering in the past, I didn’t risk trespassing as I still needed to visit 4 more Greek WHS afterwards. I stayed overnight in the nearest town, Ouranoupoli. It lies about 3km from the guarded border with Oros Athos, where the monastic community enjoys autonomous self-government within Greece. The pleasant town has a few memorabilia stores, the pilgrim’s office and furthermore a lot of shops and restaurants geared to the generic beach tourist.
My day started at ease in my hotel room behind my laptop, answering questions about Obelisks, as my boat tour along the coast of the Athos peninsula was only to leave at 11 a.m. But there was that monastery near Ouranoupoli that I had seen on the map: the Holy Monastery of Zygos. It turned out to be the ruins of one of the original Athos monasteries, within touching distance of the border. It would be a 30-minute walk from Ouranoupoli’s city center, but I only had 25 minutes at best for each way. Could I still make it there? I grabbed my bag and speed-walked towards the spot indicated on the map. It’s a sandy road, uphill, and even at 10 a.m. bloody hot without much shade. In the end, I gave up about 1 km before the finish – I wouldn’t have made it in time and the monastery nor …
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I visited Mount Athos in November 2017, staying three nights. While I certainly enjoyed my visit, it is also something of a cautionary tale, as I definitely did not get the most out of the experience as I could have.
I don’t need to go into particular detail about the practicalities of visiting from Thessaloniki, as they have been readily outlined by the previous review. As I was with only one other visitor, our request for a diamonitirion for entrance about four months later was granted by email within a couple of hours of requesting it, no issues whatsoever. One point, however, is that all ferries from and to Ouranopolis seemed to ‘require’ advance booking. Upon arrival in Ouranopolis, there was almost an hour before the next ferry. When I tried to get a ticket at this point, the ticket office wrote down my ‘reservation’ and declared that I should come back 15 minutes before the ferry departed. Returning at that point, there was a confusing scrum to try to get tickets, involving a lot of pushing and yelling. A monk was refused a ticket because he had not ‘reserved’, so it was greatly reassuring to have my name called immediately after all phone reservations had been collected. Similarly, the ferry back from Daphni ‘required’ a reservation, and we were told it was full when we arrived an hour before its departure. We were put on a waiting list that ended up being maybe 50 people long, all who managed …
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Not sure how and why, but I got in. As Ian can attest, I didn’t believe it would work out till I held my official permit (diamonitirion) in my hands and had boarded the ferry. And then it settled in, I did it!
Given Mount Athos’ restrictions on visitors, I was one of ten non Orthodox male visitors that day. Albeit visitor is the wrong term as everybody is considered a pilgrim. Please bear that in mind when you travel there.
In addition 100 Orthodox Christians are allowed entry each day. At least that’s what is communicated officially. When I looked at the large crowd on my return ferry and the hard time I had to get a seat, I came to doubt, if they really stick to these numbers each and every day.
On Mount Athos I visited two major monasteries (Agiou Panteleimonos and Xeropotamou) and a skiti (Evaggelismos tis Theotokou). I hiked along the coast line taking in the gorgeous scenery and nature the monasteries are embedded in. Seeing Klaus brought it up, this is a mixed site and I feel deservedly so. I visited in spring and all flowers were in bloom. The trees colored the mountain sides in a lush green. And the entry restrictions of the area serve as a perfect protection from the mass tourism found all along the Greek and Turkish coast.
I stayed overnight at the Russian monastery. It was undergoing heavy construction work and looks …
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The recent visit by Putin to Mt. Athos reminded me of my time there in 2010.
Mt. Athos is the name for the highest mountain on the peninsula into the Aegean Sea as well as a short name for the Autonomous Monastic State of Mt. Athos.
I spent the Orthodox Easter weekend in 2010 at the Megisti Lavra, Mt. Athos' oldest monastery and the only lavra, located at the south-eastern tip of the peninsula. It is considered the single most important monastery in the Orthodox Christianity.
I booked this trip with Mt. Athos authorities 6 months in advance. I took a boat from Ouranoupoli in Greece to Dafni, a port in Mt. Athos, took a mini bus from the port to Karyes, the capital of Mt. Athos, and from there took another mini bus for 5 hours to get to the Lavra. Along the way we stopped at at least two other monasteries.
The two night-stay in a dorm and food were free.
As I remember, the Easter service started at 2 am on the Sunday morning. I diligently listened to the monks read in Greek until breakfast at 6 am. They served large chunks of amazingly tasteless (as in no taste, not in bad taste) white fish, considered to be a feast for the monks as they had been fasting for a while.
I learned that some secular/non-secular people also went to Mt. Athos for hiking, as it offers spectacular view of the …
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My visit to Mount Athos involved a long bus ride from Thessalonika to Ouranoupolis, a small town close to the border of Mount Athos. From here I took a boat along the coast of the Mount Athos territory, passing the Greek border post and continued past several exotic looking monasteries as far as the mountain itself.
Inevitably I did not actually set foot on Mount Athos.
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I visited Mt. Athos two times in the past four months. My first visit was planed and I went with a larger group of my countryman. Ladies stayed in Jerisos and the men went on to Chilandaris. The whole experience for me was amazing. While waiting for the ferry one can hear many different languages and get first gimps of Mt. Athos by noticing many monks hading towards one of the monasteries. By little details in their robes and gear you can tell if they belong to Greek, Serbian, Romanian or some other Orthodox church. All this is taking place under huge Byzantine tower. The village of Ouranopolis has all the tourist could need but still you can feel “something different” close by.
The ferry ride was also interesting since we could see shores of Mt. Athos and also there were these sigils that followed the ferry and were eating from the peoples hands while making almost complete stops in the mid air!
We arrived to the little port which belongs to the Bulgarian monastery (I think) were a mini van waited for us. It took us on the dirt road for some 30 minutes and we could see Chilandaris from the distance. The monastery is on the foot of the mountains and it is few kilometers away from the coast on the opposite side from where we landed. First that I noticed were remains of the fire that happened in the monetary few years back. It was much worst …
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If you want to visit Mt Athos have a look at the following site http://abacus.bates.edu/~rallison/friends/
You need a permit and visitors are limited to 100 bona fide pilgrims a day – and there a hundreds of monks from Russia waiting to visit some of them! You also need to reserve accommodation at many of them – there are even telephone numbers on the site to do so!
I visited Mt Athos in 1965. Fresh out of university I had reached Thessalonika clutching a letter of introduction from my university professor (although my subject had nothing to do with religion or Greece!). This had to be taken to the British Consul. There I had to fill in a form saying why I wanted to visit Mt Athos and what I wanted to see – I “winged” the replies with the confidence of youth! They then gave me a sealed envelope containing their "support" to take to the Greek Ministry of Northern Departments (I think it was). They in turn gave me 3 sealed letters - 2 to hand in at the capital of Mt Athos, Karyes, and 1 to take to the police (on the other side of Thessalonika of course!). The police took this letter, filled in another form and gave it to me. Next day by bus to Tripiti and, after sleeping on the beach, on by early morning boat to Daphni - the harbour for Mt Athos (I remember I had to change out of shorts on the …
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It seems that it hasn't become much easier to visit Mount Athos than it was decades ago, and if you happen to be female, it's evidently impossible. But there is a way to see Athos from the sea, which should be enough for most people who aren't obsessed about Byzantine history and Orthodox monasteries (although these are very interesting), and that is to take a cruise alongside the Athos peninsula, making many monasteries perfectly visible from the ship. These cruises can be easily arranged in the tourist areas of the Chalkidiki Peninsula, and usually take in a break in the pretty port of Ouranopolis.
I don't really understand why the area was also inscribed as a natural site, since I didn't notice any particularly noteworthy natural monuments, but Athos' importance from a historical, political (an autonomous community for almost a thousand years!), religious, and cultural perspective is undeniable.
Nevertheless, I hope to be able to see Athos from the "inside" sometime in the future when they relax the rules. Until then I think I won't count it as a fully visited WH site.
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