Next to military goods and petroleum products, the biggest business in the world is tourism - but you'd never suspect it in the Holy Athonite Republic. The monastic communities of Mount Athos, occupied by nine hundred monks, are a tourist attraction that does not encourage tourism. Indeed, half of the potential visitors are automatically barred by a law that goes back to the year A.D. 1060 and is strictly enforced.
The law says: No Women Allowed!
For Miss, Ms., or Mrs. Tourist, who may be intrigued by a place like the Holy Mountain, the only way to see it - sans fuss or botheration - is through binoculars, from a rented motor launch or organized Aegean Sea junket from Piraeus. Travel-wise, the place is a novelty supreme, whether you see it from afar bobbing the waves or on land. But it is no place to try to sneak in on a lark. Women who have been caught sneaking in receive a standard punishment of six to sixteen lashes and immediate expulsion.
But if you are of the male persuasion and are willing to put up with a lot of inconvenience, Mount Athos will let you come in for a look-see. But you can't bring along a wife, or girl friend, or mistress, or even a pet dog, cat, or parakeet that happens to be female. She is a no no, a nix, forbidden, verboten. That is the most rigid of the rules and regulations kept by the monks of Mount Athos. This unique country, the only true theocracy in the world - and also the only monastic state in Europe - remains untouched by the presence of members of the opposite sex.
With a status somewhat akin to that of the State of Vatican City, the retreat of Mount Athos occupies an inaccessible mountainous peninsula 40 miles long as 4 miles wide, jutting into the Aegean Sea some 150 miles east of Salonika. This sanctuary of barricaded bachelors, who wish to live out their days in undisturbed tranquility and contemplation, is one of the curiosities of human history and promises to be the last male stronghold of planet Earth.
Extending from the coast of Greece and rising 6,350 feet above sea level, Athos is independent of Greek jurisdiction and is governed by monastic orders of the Greek Orthodox Church. The monks live, work, and pray here in twenty monasteries in twelve "towns." They have no radio, no television, no newspapers, no phones, no telegraph, and only one vehicle. Besides the restrictions on milady, they also have severe laws against all musical instruments, smoking, horseback riding, and singing,.
What sort of people are the monks and hermits of Athos? Most of these men were brought here immediately after birth and therefore have never seen a woman in their lives. But why have they remained, cut of from civilization, content to spend their days perched atop a craggy peninsula of 150 square miles? This newspaper man determined to try (briefly) the spartan life, foregoing the usual twentieth-century touristic conveniences, in the search for understanding.
Visiting the Monasteries
If you are visiting on foot or by pack mule, the land offers one monastery after another. What I found in these places were immaculate sleeping quarters, substantial vegetarian food with plenty of fresh water or
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