Because of it's isolation Mount Athos has remained one of the most unspoiled parts of Greece. The landscape is stunning and wild, with small green valleys and gorges, well wooded peaks interspersed with precipitous ravines and an inaccessible coastline. Small streams of crystal clear water run free under the deep shade of the chestnut trees.

Here and there in this wilderness are the fortified walls of the monasteries, with small vegetable plots around them, encircled by a silver-green sea of the olive groves. Hidden among the greenery and the impassable gorges, perched in the most unexpected positions is the white speckle of a little hut were a hermit spends his days in solitude and contemplation.

It is a land where myth is entwined with history, miracles mingle with reality. Savage mountain scenery reflecting on the dark blue sea create that essential framework of isolation in a peaceful, solitary world, chosen by the hermits for their monastic state