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'''Mount Athos''' is a mountain and a peninsula in Macedonia, northern Greece, called <font lang="el">&#902;&#947;&#953;&#959; &#908;&#961;&#959;&#962;</font> (''Ayio Oros'' or "Holy Mountain") in Modern Greek, or <font lang="el">&#x1F0D;&#947;&#953;&#959;&#957; &#x1F4C;&#961;&#959;&#962;</font> (''Hagion Oros'') in Classical Greek. It is home to 20 [[Orthodox Church|Orthodox]] [[monastery|monasteries]] and forms an autonomous state under Greek sovereignty. Only [[monasticism|monks]] are allowed to live on Athos and the current population numbers around 1,400. The peninsula, the easternmost "leg" of the larger Chalkidiki peninsula, protrudes into the Aegean Sea for some 60 km at a width between 7 to 12 km and covers an area of about 390 km&sup2;, with the actual mountain and its steep, densely forested slopes reaching up to 2,033 m.

Politically the peninsula is mostly self-governed and consists of 20 main monasteries and the capital city and administrative centre, [[Karyes (Athos)|Karyes]], also home to a governor as the representative of the Greek state. Beyond the monasteries there are 12 ''[[skete|sketae]]'', smaller communities of monks, as well as many (solitary) hermitages throughout the peninsula. Visits to the peninsula are possible for laymen, but they need special permission.

Women are completely barred from the peninsula, a fact which has earned a certain amount of fame; even female domestic animals (with the exception, some say, of cats, as well as chickens which lay eggs that provide the fresh egg yolk needed for the paint used in [[iconography]]) are forbidden. However, during the Greek Civil War, Athos did shelter refugees including women and girls. [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010209.html]

== Languages ==

Greek is commonly used in all Greek monasteries, but in some monasteries there are other languages in use, in [[St. Panteleimon's Monastery (Athos)|St. Panteleimon]], Russian; in [[Chilandari Monastery (Athos)|Chilandari]], Serbian; in [[Zographou Monastery (Athos)|Zographou]], Bulgarian; and in the sketae of [[Prodromou Skete (Athos)|Prodromou]] and [[Lacu Skete (Athos)|Lacu]], Romanian. Today, many of the Greek monks can also understand English or other European languages.

== List of Monasteries and Sketes ==

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== External links ==

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[[Category:Monasteries]]