Greece - Athos & Tessalloniki

Greece lies at the juncture of Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is heir to the heritages of classical Greece, the Byzantine Empire, and nearly four centuries of Ottoman rule. Regarded as the cradle of western civilization and being the birthplace of democracy, Western philosophy, the Olympic Games, western literature, political science, major scientific principles and drama (including both tragedy and comedy), Greece has a particularly long and eventful history and a cultural heritage which has been considerably influential in Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East.

Today, Greece is a developed country, a member of the European Union and NATO. Athens is the capital; Thessaloniki and Piraeus are some of the country's other major cities.

Thessaloniki (pop 1.700.000, second largest town in Greece) is the capital of the largest Greek province called Central Macedonia.

Mount Athos or Agion Oros, as it is locally known, is the oldest surviving monastic community in the world. It dates back more than a thousand years, to Byzantine times. It is a unique monastic republic, which, although part of Greece, it is governed by it's own local administration. It occupies the best part of the Athos peninsula in Halkidiki.

Because of it's isolation Mount Athos has remained one of the most unspoiled parts of Greece. It is a land where myth is entwined with history, miracles mingle with reality. Savage mountain scenery reflecting on the dark blue sea create that essential framework of isolation in a peaceful, solitary world, chosen by the hermits for their monastic state.

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.