Here is a cool story about Mount Athos.
… Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox “monastic republic” and a surviving fragment of the Byzantine Empire — a fully functioning mini-state with roads, settlements and a capital city, all operating under a charter granted by the Emperor at Constantinople in 972. It’s a time-warped place. Clocks are set on Byzantine time, which starts at sunset; dates are calculated by the Julian calendar of the Roman Empire, 13 days different from the modern Gregorian calendar; some settlements are supplied solely by mule teams; and the flag of Byzantium still flies. It’s also a World Heritage Site, containing what is arguably the world’s greatest concentration of Byzantine religious art and architecture…
