on the magic carpet..

on the magic carpet..

Greece
Chalkidiki
Holy Mount Athos
Dochiariou monastery

To set foot in Mount Athos, in the Chalkidiki peninsula, means sitting on the magic carpet and cruising back more than thousand years of Christian Orthodox history with absence of the most distructing elements of current civilization pattern..No roads, no traffic, dense forestry and imposing monasteries from the very early Byzantine era loaded with mosaics and frescoes and hiding real tresors in their libraries and museums.Monks,many of them highly educated, from all around the world seek refuge there for austerity and meditation and live either in organized communities but also in isolated caves.It is rumored that also outcasts or fugitives seek refuge as common law has no reach there...Most of them cultivate a piece of land for their bare necessities or deal with religious painting,wood curving,carpentry and writting.Women entry is strictly forbidden. Only, inevitably, the..microsoft and computer monster has menaged to penetrate helping, is true, in many ways...

The photo is a digital conversion from a Kodak Ectachrome slide.