The Western world has no other realm quite like Mount Athos, a
rugged tongue of land in northern Greece where 20 Orthodox
monasteries rise in crescendo from the rocks and the forests.
For the past millennium, the whole peninsula has been a site for
monastic settlements, a secret chain of sprawling compounds and
hundreds of smaller houses and hermits' hideaways. The oldest
buildings are virtual fortresses, with arsenals and defensive
towers, the telltale marks of a time when the monks had to fight
off pirates, Christian crusaders, Ottoman Turks. But the monks
of the holy mountain have not only held on to their refuge, they
have also kept alive an unbroken tradition of study and liturgy.
Today, their abode survives as the spiritual focus for all of
the Eastern Orthodox world. Over the centuries, the monks have
gathered a trove of priceless objects, including an estimated
20,000 icons and some 15,000 manuscripts, that rank among the
world's most outstanding collections. Yet while Mount Athos has
long sent out it