Place:Mount Athos, Greece

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NameMount Athos
Alt namesPangaíon Óros
Mount Athossource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 463
Pangaíon Óros departmentsource: Getty Vocabulary Program
TypeAutonomous Region
Located inGreece
Contained Places
Inhabited place
Kariaí
Áthos ( 700 - )
source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names


the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in northeastern Greece and an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. It is governed as an autonomous polity within the Hellenic Republic, namely the monastic community of Mount Athos under the direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

Mount Athos is commonly referred to in Greek as the ('Holy Mountain'). Other languages of Orthodox tradition also use names translating to 'Holy Mountain'. This includes Bulgarian, Macedonian and Serbian (Света Гора, Sveta Gora; ); and Georgian. However, not all languages spoken in the region use this name; it is simply called "Athos" in Russian,; and "Mount Athos" in Romanian, or . In the classical era, while the mountain was called Athos, the peninsula was known as or.

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. Today, over 2,000 monks from Greece and many other countries, including Eastern Orthodox countries such as Romania, Moldova, Georgia, Bulgaria, Serbia and Russia, live an ascetic life in Athos, isolated from the rest of the world. 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.

Although Mount Athos is legally part of the European Union like the rest of Greece, the Monastic community institutions have a special jurisdiction which was reaffirmed during the admission of Greece to the European Community (precursor to the EU). This empowers the monastic community's authorities to regulate the free movement of people and goods in its territory; in particular, only males are allowed to enter.

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