. Researches in the highlands of Turkey; including visits to mounts Ida, Athos, Olympus, and Pelion, to the Mirdite Albanians, and other remote tribes . mbarked in a sailing-boat,which we had engaged to take us across to Athos. Aftertossing and tacking for a long time under the westernheights of Thasos, with plentiful experience of the lightand fickle winds of the yEgean, about noon the followingday we found ourselves approaching the monastery ofVatopedi, which is now the largest and most importantof all the convents. Before we land, however, it may bewell to say a few words by way of introduc
. Researches in the highlands of Turkey; including visits to mounts Ida, Athos, Olympus, and Pelion, to the Mirdite Albanians, and other remote tribes . mbarked in a sailing-boat,which we had engaged to take us across to Athos. Aftertossing and tacking for a long time under the westernheights of Thasos, with plentiful experience of the lightand fickle winds of the yEgean, about noon the followingday we found ourselves approaching the monastery ofVatopedi, which is now the largest and most importantof all the convents. Before we land, however, it may bewell to say a few words by way of introduction, andthen briefly sketch the general features of the HolyMountain. The easternmost of the three peninsulas, which stretch Chap. III. The Holy Mountain. 5; like a trident from the coast of Macedonia into the northof the yEgean, notwithstanding its important position andstriking internal features, does not seem to have risen tomuch importance before the Christian era. On one occa-sion it comes prominently forward, when Xerxes, warnedby the destruction of the fleet of Mardonius on its rockycoasts, cut the canal through the isthmus, the traces of. Plan of Mount Athos. which, notwithstanding the soil ^^•hich has accumulated inthe course of ages, are still distinctly visible. At a laterperiod the architect Dinocrates proposed to carve its hugepeak into a statue of Alexander. But the small townsthat fringed its shores never attained to opulence, andare seldom mentioned in history. In Christian times,however, this spot has gradually become the seat of a 54 Mount Afhos. Chap. III. community, which is probably without a parallel in theworld. At what period monks and anchorites first beganto resort to Mount Athos, it is difficult to of the monasteries possess relics and ancientworks of art, which are described as presents from theEmpress Pulcheria; some of them refer their foundationto the time of Constantine ; and, though we may hesitateto accept these statements,
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