Athos

Athos, Mount, or Monte Santo, stands at the extremity of the most northerly of the three finger-like peninsulas that project from the coast of Salonika into the AEgean Sea, It is 6,780 feet high, and is covered with monasteries, called hermitages, and chapels, to the number of 900. These are occupied by monks of the Greek Church, and have libraries peculiarly rich in manuscripts. No woman, nor indeed any female animal, is allowed on the peninsula, presumably because of the sin of Eve. Xerxes on his way to Greece cut through the peninsula a channel which can still be traced.