This resort island today does enjoy a most favorable climate what with
cooling winds from the north blowing across during the summer
months and the warming breezes from African deserts in the winter time.
There is no Winter as such, and an overcoat is distinctly excess baggage
at any time.
Rhodes
is officially "blessed" with 3.250 hours of sunshine a year,
for a average of 9 hours a day.
Covered
down through the ages, primarily for it's strategic position, Rhodes has
been conquered by ahost
of invaders. Influences by civilations of the Continent and by
those of the orient have resulted in a
colourful history for the 600-square mile island.Daring
adventure, treachery, envy, barbarity, compassion and romance have all
been a part of her chapters
in the annals of time.
Rhodes
stretches 45 miles from North to South and 20 miles accross it broadest
points east and west. Prime
attention for visitors is centered on the northern tip where is the city
of Rhodes which includes the world
"lived-in" medieval city within it's boundaries.
Much of
the "Old Town" of Rhodes that enchants visitors
today was laid out and built by the architect Hippodamus in the 5th
century BC. Hippodamus,
originally from Asia Minor, had one fame as the builder and of decorator
of Piraeus, the sea
port of Athens. Kamiros,
Lindos and Ialysos, the three original independent city-state kingdoms
of the island, joined forces
and finances in 408 BC to establish a new, 4th settlement. Their
purpose was to create a
suitable,
protected port city for their joint, growing commercial fleet. The
site chosen was at the northernly
tip where there was a series of 4 natural harbours adjacent one to the
other.
The
"Old Town" stands basically as Hippodamus engineered it.
Since the founding of the city of Rhodes
in 408 BC, the history of the island and the history of the city
are one and the same. The
town spreads out in the form of an amphitheater with white roads, five
small harbours and a sewage
said by many to be superior to that of present day Athens.
In
older days the island was also known as Ophidia or Fidoussa after the
Greek for "snakes" which need
cause no concern today. The ancients got rid of them by importing
a herd of stags. The
deer rid the island of the natural enemy and they have been revered ever
since as a result. Two
columns topped by a buck and doe flank the entrance to Mandraki Harbour.
These
two tributes to the deer mark the romantic notion of where the famed Colossus of
ancient days
stood, although scholars disagree as to it's actual location.
Modern
historians doubt popular representations of the Colossus with legs apart
straddling the entrance
since it would have collapsed into the sea during the violent earthquake
which reportedly destroyed
it. There is no evidence or remains in the sea about Colossus.
Today
there is endless fascination for tourists who wander about the "Old
Town". The colourful sandstone
construction of the enclosing walls, the emmense gates and the
buildings, adds a romantic
aspect to everything. The uphill Socrates street is a bazaar with
few equals anyway with
the assortment of goods for sales seemingly endless. As
intriguing at the town may be, it would be a rare and unwise visitor who spent anytime on the island
and failed to "get out of town".
One main target of tourists is Lindos. Filerimos and Kamiros are
well worth a visit to and Petaloudes
or the "Valley of the Butterflies" which is a unique and
beautiful retreat.
All
46 villages of Rhodes, the largest Archangelos, with a population of
4.000 is passed en-route
to Lindos, have something to see, in architectural styles, traditions
and evidence of the
simplicity of life before Tourism and Television. But Lindos 2000
years ago, a city with an already
glorious past, is today a village of about 800 inhabitants is something
else.
Set
on a promontory jutting out of the east coast, Lindos was one of the 3
ancient cities of Rhodes. It
is the site of an Acropolis older and in many respects more exquisite
and spectacular than that of Athens.
The Acropolis stands on a flat-top-ped rocky cliff than drops sheer to
the sea, 377 feet below
and overlooks the town and tiny harbour where Saint Paul is said to have
landed in 58 BC, for
what would today be considere a "stop over" on his way to
Rome. During his short stay he
is credited with converting the Rhodians to Christianity in honour of
which the harbour of Lindos
is
now named after him. A tiny chapel marks the spot where he is said
to have first stepped ashore.
The
entire village is now an official archealogical site which means that
nothing can be changed, not
even the colour of the paint on the window shutters. The houses,
some dating from the 15th Century,
offer a mixture of Byzantine, Arabic and Aegean Architectures. Several
of stone stairways to
the upper level from where sea captains could keep watch on their
ships. Many have fascinating
pebble mosaic courtyards, some with intricate designs.
In
Ancient Greece an Acropolis was basically a fortified hill above a town
where the inhabitants could
find safety in time of peril. Few where quite so impregnable as
the Acropolis of Lindos inaccessable
from three sides and approachable only from the North. Today
it stands majestically a target shutter-happy tourists. It is difficult
not to get a good picture of
or at Lindos.
Medieval
times represented a romantic era with robust living and today's visitors
in their bikinis and
joie de vivre makes Rhodes a winner for a memorable holiday.
Rhodes
was inhabited already in pre-historic times. The island gradually
expanded it's influence and
became the main commercial link in the Mediteranean. Present
- day Rhodes is a medieval/modern amalgam which impresses and fascinates
visitors.Its medieval aspect ,
fortified behind an impressive wall merges harmoniously with the refined
cosmopolitan air of a modern resort
with luxurious hotels, broad avenues with rows of trees and rich
commercial stores. It's fascinating
to walk in the medieval town, full of impressive 15th century buildings,
stone paved lanes with arches and vaults and rows of little shops as a
modern touch to the medieval picture, offering a surprising variety of
commodities.
Climate:
The island of Rhodes
famous for its pleasant climate. Pliny the Elder wrote:" There is
not one single day without sun ".
Geographical
position: It is
situated on geographical longtitude 28 from Greenwich and northern
latitude 36 degrees on the southeastern part of the Aegean sea.
Its
area is 1398 sq.
kil. with a maximum length of about 100 kil. and a maximum width of
about 40 kil. It is
the largest of the islands of the Dodecanese group.
Cultural
(Available
on the next update)
