20 Monasteries; they are ranked in the following hierarchical order, which cannot be changed:
The Megiste Lavra (founded in 963), Vatopaidi (founded in 972), Iveron (also founded in 972), Chilandari (founded in 1197 - Serbian), Dionysiou (founded in 1375), Koutloumousiou (founded in the 12th century), Pantocrator (founded in 1363), Xeropotamou (founded in 970), Zographou (founded c. 973 - Bulgarian), Docheiariou (founded c. 970), Karakallou (founded in the early 11th century), Philotheou (founded around the end of the 10th century), Simonopetra (founded in the first half of the 14th century), Aghiou Pavlou (founded in the second half of the 10th century), Stavroniketa (founded in 1541), Xenophontos (founded in the late 10th century), Gregoriou (founded before the middle of the 14th century), Esphigmenou (founded in the late 10th century), Rossikon (St Panteleimon) (founded in the 10th century), Konstamonitou (founded in the 11th century).
Population:
1,700
Languages:
Greek is commonly used in all Greek monasteries, but in some monasteries there are other languages in use: in St Panteleimonos Russian (35 monks), in Iviron Georgian (53), in Hilandar Serbian (46), in Zographou Bulgarian (15), and in the cloisters sketae of Prodromos and Lacu Romanian (64). Today, many of the Greek monks can speak English.
Geographic coordinates:
40° 15' N, 24° 15' E
Area total:
389 sq. km
Borders with neighbor countries:
Greece The land border is closed for foreigners.
Coastline:
112 km
Elevation extremes:
Sea level 0 m - Mt Athos 2,033 m
Currency:
Euro (EUR)
Name - conventional short form:
Mount Athos
Name - local short form:
Agion Oros (Holy Mountain)
Independence:
From year 855; now autonomy in Greece.
Constitution:
The Charter of the Holy Mountain.
Government type:
The Holy Community (Greek Hiera Koenotes) is the government of the Mountain - is based at Karies, the capital of the peninsula. It is the board of the twenty representatives of the monasteries, who are chosen, one from each monastery, for a one year term. Executive authority rests with the Holy Supervisory Committee of the Community (Hiera Epistasia). Each of the five members of this body represents a group of four monasteries (Tetrad). Those members constitute the Holy Supervisory Committee for one year from June 1st to the end of May.
Dependency status:
The Holy Mountain is a self-governed part of the Greek state, subject to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its political aspect and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as regards its religious aspect.
The Holy Mountain is administered, according to the status which it enjoys, by the Twenty Monasteries among which the whole of the Athos peninsula is divided up; their territory is not subject to expropriation.
By virtue of the provision of the Constitution of Greece, two administrative authorities must co-exist on the Holy Mountain: a civil administrative authority and a monastic administrative authority. To the first belongs the Governor of the Holy Mountain, who is appointed by a Legislative Decree originating with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, to whose jurisdiction he belongs. The Governor's supervision extends not only to those matters which concern public order and security, but also to the observance of the Charter of the Holy Mountain.
Subject to the second of these authorities - the monastic administrative authority - with a view to safeguarding the self-administration which the Holy Mountain enjoys, are the individual administrative organs and the collective organs of each of the Twenty Ruling, Royal, Patriarchal and Stavropegic Monasteries, whose number and position in the hierarchy cannot be changed, and the general administrative organs of the Holy Mountain, which are the Holy Community, the Holy Epistasia, and the Extra-ordinary Twenty-Member Synaxis. These monasteries are termed Ruling not only because that is the name which they are given on the Mountain and because they govern themselves in accordance with their own Internal Regulations, but also because subject to them are all the dependencies on the Holy Mountain, that is, the sketes, kellia, kalyves, hesychasteria, and kathismata, according to long-established order. They are called Royal and Patriarchal because either they were founded or they were under the protection of kings or Patriarchs, and Stavropegic because there is located in them a cross specially sent by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.