ATHOS, now HAGION OROS or MONTE SANTO (Holy Mountain), a high mountain in Macedonia, 50 miles east of Salo nica, the extremity of a long chain of mountains which runs through a peninsula jutting into the Archipelago. The peninsula is about 30 miles long and five miles broad. It is covered with forests of various kinds of trees, and with vineyards and plantations of olive and other fruit-trees. The surface is very irregular, and the coast displays numerous creeks and inlets of the sea. In ancient history the peninsula is mentioned chiefly on account of the shipwreck which here befell the Persian fleet under Mardonius in 493 B.C., and on account of the canal which, in order to avoid a similar calamity, Xerxes caused to be cut through the isthmus that joins the peninsula to the mainland. The whole penin sula, as well as the mountain, which is about 6,700 feet above the level of the sea, receives the name of Athos. It contains some 20 mon asteries, and a multitude of hermitages, inhab ited by about 6,000 monks and hermits of the Order of Saint Basil. They are extremely in dustrious: they diligently cultivate the soil, grow vines and olives, vegetables, etc., and actively engage in fishing, and they also carve statues of the saints, Agni Dei, crucifixes, rosa ries, etc., which they send to the small town of Karyes, on the mountain, where weekly markets are held, and to the rest of Europe, especially to Russia. They also collected alms to pay their
heavy yearly tax to the Porte. There is an academy in which the younger monks receive instruction in various subjects. The libraries of the monasteries are rich in literary treas ures, particularly in manuscripts, partly pro cured from Constantinople before its conquest by the Turks, partly presented to them from the same place, and partly written by the labo rious monks. Many hooks have been brought thence to the great collections at Paris, Vienna, etc., and the rest are but little used among the monks themselves. Their monasteries and churches were the only ones in the Ottoman empire which had bells. Every nation belong ing to the Greek Church has here one or more monasteries of its own, annually visited by pil grims from Russia, Serbia, Bulgaria, etc., as well as from Greece, Asia Minor and Constanti nople. The privileges which the members of the various establishments enjoy they owe to Murad II, who, on account of their voluntary submission, even before the capture of Constan tinople, granted them his protection. Hermits were established on Athos in the middle of the 9th century, and the first monastery, that of Saint Lavra, was founded by the monk Athana sius in 968. In 1912 Athos was occupied by the Greeks during the Balkan War, and is now un der Greek sovereignty.