Athos
MOUNT, or HAGION-OROS, or MONTE SANTO, a famous mountain of Turkey in Europe, on a peninsula peninsula projecting into the Ægean Sea, between the Gulfs of Contesa and Monte Santo. It rises abruptly from the water to a height of 6,349 feet above sea level, and in its lower parts is covered with forests of pine, oak, chestnut, etc., above. which towers bare conical peak. Herodotus. states that the fleet of Mardonius, the Persian general, in attempting to double this mountain, was reported to have lost more than 300 ships and 20,000 men.
When Xerxes invaded Greece he determined to guard against the recurrence of a similar disaster by cutting a canal across the peninsula; of which great work the traces still remain. In modern times, Athos has been occupied for an extended period by a number of monks of the Greek Church, who live in a sort of fortified monasteries, in number about 20, of different degrees of magnitude and importance. These, with the farms or metochis attached to them, occupy the whole peninsula; hence it has derived its modern name of Monte Santo. These monasteries are situated in positions of strikingly romantic beauty. Some of ATLANTA them belong to Russians, others to Bulgarians and Serbians. ATITLAN (at-it'lan), a lake and mountain of Central America, in Guatemala. The lake is about 24 miles long and 10 broad; the mountain is an active volcano, 12,160 feet high.