Monasteries on Akti

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Tue 30 Jun 2009 05:19
Wednesday 30th June
 
The Akti Peninsula on Khalkidiki is the site of some 17 monasteries.  Time there is still reckoned by the Julian calendar and the day ruled by the Byzantine clock with hours of variable length.  Females are not allowed to set foot in the monasteries, and yachts with women on board are supposed to stay at least a mile offshore.
 
The blurb we read about it said they have no electricity or roads, but we saw solar panels and a network of roads leading to many of the monasteries, so maybe it was a little out of date!
 
We decided to spend some time sailing along the western coast of the Akti peninsula, as the monasteries are all perched on cliff or hillsides, and take a look.  They were certainly very interesting to see, and we often wondered how they had been able to build them in such inaccessible places.
 
                   
 
 
          
 
They were all very austere looking places, except for one which had once housed 1500 Russian monks, and that one looked like this: