Visitor numbers on Greece's Mount Athos hit new records in 2025, raising concerns over overcrowding and loss of spiritual ...

Monks are preparing for a major raid on Mount Athos, the Greek mountain considered a sacred site for Eastern Orthodox Christians, after Greek police sent a letter on July 16 asking for increased ...

How does an unbeliever like me end up in a place that, according to my cohabitants for seven nights, lies closest to God? Perhaps because there must be a place for middle-aged Australian men of Greek ...

The skulls, lined up five deep on wooden shelves, date back hundreds of years, with the names of the more recently deceased scratched onto their foreheads — Monk Theolothelis, 91, 26-6-1986, or Monk ...

Abbot Ephrem is under arrest since 24 December after his return from the tour in Russia, with the relic of the Virgin's belt. Moscow denounces judicial persecution, but he is a controversial figure ...

Mount Athos, a self-governed peninsula in northeastern Greece, has been attracting pilgrims to its Orthodox monasteries for centuries. But the debt crisis has led to a sharp rise in the number of ...

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or ...

The World Heritage Committee decision taken at its 32nd session (Quebec City, 2008) while noting with satisfaction the continuous efforts between the national authorities and the leadership of the ...

MOUNT ATHOS, Greece — Brother Job twists and jiggles the big brass key and eases open the charnel house door. My eyes struggle in the dimness, and I blink in disbelief, confirming what I think I’m ...

It was while visiting Mount Athos, more than a quarter of a century ago, that I first heard the Soviet Union would collapse—and would do so in my lifetime. There, in northeastern Greece one ...