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logical haven dedicated to the idea of faith. I walk alongside Left: Aghios
gurgling streams, the shadow of trees protecting me from Panteleimon’s
Monastery.
the sun, and after many hours of divine contemplation and Right: Hilandar
wanderings I arrive at different destinations: Karyes (the Monastery.
Αριστερά:
capital of Mount Athos), the Monastery of Megisti Lavra Μονή Αγίου
(the largest monastery), Stavronikita Monastery. In the 19th Παντελεήμονος.
century, more than 10,000 Athonites lived here but this Δεξιά: Μονή
number has fallen over the decades. In the 1970s, when the Χιλανδαρίου.
desperate preferred to become hippies instead of monks, the
population of Mount Athos fell to an extremely threatening
500. But today, when hippies are about as passé as bankers,
the population of Mount Athos has started to grow again –
reaching 2,000 people. The fact that the misdirection of glo-
balization, the excess of consumerism and the saturation of
communication have contributed to a paradoxical return to
faith is nothing new. For some young people and older men,

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