The Cave of St Athanasios the Athonite

I have too many photos I want you to see! I have to restrain myself on the blog here and just say again that all the photos can be seen here.

Anyway, we headed down to the very southeast face of the Holy Mountain, a sheer cliff. This part of the Holy Mountain is known as the most rigorous. The sea facing out to the open Aegean is rough, and the wind whips through the high mountains there.

This is precisely where St. Athanasios (the founder of the Great Lavra and one of the first monks on Athos) chose to have his cave. For more information on St. Athanasios, see here.

The top photo is of John as we climbed along the narrow path to get to the cave.

The second photo is of the cave (in the middle). A modern cell was built along the outside of the cave, so that a monk could stay there and take care of the site.

The third photo was taken straight down from the site of the cave.

Again, check out the map here. Look for Timiou Prodromou on the southeast corner.