Sacred Geography and National Parks

Sacred Geography

I’m spending a month exploring the national parks and other protected natural areas of Greece to better understand how natural landscapes are imbued with cultural meaning. Bringing this to 21st century America, my question is: what does sacred geography mean for secular national parks?

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Deep time

Deep time: In doing some background reading on Greek history, I’m embarrassed to admit how little I know–how is it with all my education, I never learned anything about the ancient Mediterranean World? Maybe I’m a product of a Western (US, not civilization) education. I know much more about Native American tribes, beliefs, mythology than…
The Route

National Parks and cultural heritage sites I’m visiting:
Sundays in Greece

Morning coffee in a balcony in an Athens suburb with bird song, date palms, and orange sky. Mid morning coffee in an outdoor cafe in the quaint ski town (of course) of Arachova. Mid afternoon coffee in Delphi. On my first day I’m noticing some common themes in Greece: everyone has a balcony, people spend…
Delphi, navel of the world

Delphi, navel of the world Once upon a time (notice how the phrase immediately denotes a mythological past), before the gods (do we even have a rough date of when Zeus overthrew Kronos?) when paganism ran amok—I’m guessing early Bronze Age or before—early Greeks (or could have been Phoenicians) gazed up at a deep cleft…
The National Parks of Greece

My initial impression of Greece is that it resembles the American West in so many ways. Driving north of Athens, the granite mountains covered in oak and juniper remind me of central Arizona, even more so with the recent fires that have denuded the landscape so that only gnarled white skeletons of trees remain. Like…
Zagoria

Zagoria Well this place is certainly different. Zagoria is a vast mountainous region with extensive forests, scattered villages, bisected by deep canyons, and clear blue streams, one of which becomes the Aoos River, the longest undammed river in Europe. Zagoria derives from the Slavic meaning land between the mountains. Aoos Vikos National Park encompasses nearly…
Prespa Lakes National Park

Prespa Lakes National Park, established in 2000, challenges the North American conception of a national park, and depending on your perspective, either dilutes and diminishes the very idea of a national park or presents a holistic and innovate way of approaching how humans interact with their landscape. This transboundary park consists of 2 lakes in…
Mount Olympus National Park

I didn’t really plan on spending the full moon solstice on Mount Olympus, but that’s how it worked out. Mount Olympus is probably the closest parallel to the North American national park model in Greece. There’s a large visitor center at the base of the mountain with very thoughtful and informative displays, much better than…
Meteora: medieval mecca

My initial thought in exploring the sacred geography of Greece is that I would find the ancient world in a more harmonious relationship with nature and find the schism between humans and nature in the shift from pantheism to Christianity. But a visit to Meteora has upended that assumption. The rock formations alone are enough…
Sacred Geography Redux: Secular Humanism and National Parks

I have long been a student of national parks in both the ideal and practice (See Mountains without Handrails by Joseph Sax). While national parks are certainly expressions of national identity imposed upon the landscape, they are also manifestations of the sacred in a secular age. We approach these special areas with a degree of…