A mountain in the district of Chalkidike (Chalcidice) in northern Greece.
Chalkidike has three finger-like peninsulas jutting into the Aigean (Aegean) Sea and Mount Athos is on the southern-most tip of the eastern peninsula.
The goddess Hera flew across Mount Athos as she made her way to the island of Lemnos to meet Hypnos, god of sleep. Rising 6,670 feet (2,033 meters) above the northern Aigean Sea, Mount Athos always has been a distinctive landmark.
As testimony to the grand designs envisioned by the Greek architects at the time of Alexander the Great (prior to 323 BCE), a man named Cheirocrates proposed carving a likeness of Alexander into the side of Mount Athos. Alexander would be posed pouring a libation from a ewer into a bowl. The gigantic statue would be flanked by two towns with a river flowing between them. For various reasons, the project was never initiated.
Latitude North, Longitude East
40.1731, 24.3277
| References: Homer, Iliad book 14, line 229 Strabo, Geography book 14.1.23 |