The Athos peninsula is the easternmost of the three peninsulas that make Halkidiki. This peninsula is covered by Mount Athos, which culminates in a marble pyramid with a height of  2033 meters. It concludes in Cape Nymfeo. It is connected to Halkidiki the narrow isthmus of Xerxes, the length of 2 km. with a history from the Persian Wars in 480 BC. Between the peninsula of Athos and Sithonia, the Siggitikos or the Mount Athos Bay is formed, while to the Northern east, the Gulf of Ierissos.

A few miles to the northern east of Athos, the largest pit of the Aegean is found that reaches from 80m depth, abruptly to 1070m.

Mount Athos is a self-governed part of the Greek state, which belongs politically to the Foreign Ministry and religiously to the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

It has territorially been divided into twenty self-rule areas. Each territory consists of a cardinal monastery and some other monastic settlements around it (cloisters, cells, huts, seats, hermitages).

Visiting Mount Athos

In order for somebody to visit the Mount Athos, he should promptly schedule the exact day of his entry. Then he must contact the pilgrim’s office of the Mount Athos of Thessaloniki on the phone: 2310-252578 and fax: 2310-222424.

Information requested from the competent office is the following: name and surname, father’s name, year of birth, ID number, date of issuance and authority of issuance, after ensuring his accommodation, a telephone communication should take place with the holy monastery of his choice about his accommodation.

If someone wants to see around the monasteries and the peninsula, daily boat trips are made in the summer from Ouranoupolis.

The monasteries

• † Holy Monastery of MEGISTI LAVRA
• † Holy Monastery of VATOPEDIOU
• † Holy Monastery of IVIRON
• † Holy Monastery of CHILANDARIOU
• † Holy Monastery of DIONISIOU
• † Holy Monastery of KOUTLOUMOUSIOU
• † Holy Monastery of PANTOKRATORAS
• † Holy Monastery of XIROPOTAMOU
• † Holy Monastery of ZOGRAFOU
• † Holy Monastery of DOCHIARIOU
• † Holy Monastery of KARAKALLOU
• † Holy Monastery of PHILOTHEOU
• † Holy Monastery of SIMONOS PETRA
• † Holy Monastery of STAVRONIKITA
• † Holy Monastery of XENOFONTOS
• † Holy Monastery of GRIGORIOU
• † Holy Monastery of ESFIGMENOU
• † Holy Monastery of ST PANTELEIMONOS
• † Holy Monastery of KOSTAMONITOU