All Rhodes Lead to the Best City in Greece

Ancient Wonders of the World with Byzantine Knights

As much as I enjoyed my time on Crete and in Athens, I think my favorite city in Greece has to be Rhodes.  The city of Rhodes within the island of Rhodes combines the best of Crete with secluded streets, delicious food, and friendly merchants (a local came up at one point just to welcome us to his island) with the historical sites and significance of Athens.  We only had one day in Rhodes, but we made the best of our time, sampling all Rhodes had to offer.

Once the site of a the Colossus of Rhodes, a huge bronze satiates and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, these pillars now adorn the entrance to the ancient Rhodes harbor with statues of deer.

Part of the reason I think we enjoyed Rhodes so much was due to research into activities I conducted ahead of time.  What I found was an iphone app that included several walking tours of the ancient walled city of Rhodes.  The app was made by the Rhodes tourism board, making it rather cheap at two dollars.  It also does not require data or wifi to operate, other than loading the maps after the app has finished downloading to the phone.

The ruins of the Temple of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess of love.

Of the many tours of the app, I chose to follow the deluxe tour, with over forty different stops.  The tour began at the tour harbor, and from there we followed the map and walking directions to the next sight.  Once at the sight, I read aloud the history of what we were looking at so David could enjoy the tour as much as I.  There is an option to listen to audio of the stop descriptions instead of reading them, but we didn’t want to wear headphones and thought playing the recording might draw too much attention. 

A double entrance gate in the ancient city's walls near the harbor of Rhodes.

Rhodes has a long and convoluted history.  Originally just another Grecian city-state like Sparta or Athens, much of the structure of historic Rhodes is a result of the crusades era.  Rhodes is very close to Turkey, like much of Greece.  As knights from all over Europe pushed to reclaim the Holy Land from the Turks, Rhodes became the front lines, being occupied by tongues (orders) or nights from all over Europe who meant to crusade and then by Turks who expelled knights form the island then back again. 

The street of knights, this street leads up to the Palace of the Grand Masters, the elected leader knight of Rhodes.  On either side of the street are the offices of all the orders of knights who once defended Rhodes against the Turks.

Later in time in World War II, Rhodes was occupied by the Italians who meant to make its primary palace, the Palace of the Grand Masters the summer home of Mussolini, rebuilding much of the castle.  Now Rhodes is back where it belongs in the Kingdom of Greece.  The walking tour showed us relics representing each of these eras.

The twisting turning triple gate of Gate d'Amboise, was so effective fourteen thousand Turks saw their doom at it in one day.

Relevant to the ancient city-state of Rhodes, the tour brought us to the crumbling temple of Aphrodite.  From the temple it was a short walk to the location of Rhode’s Colossus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.  The Colossus was a one hundred and five feet tall bronze statue overseeing the ancient harbor.  With its feet and lower legs filled with rubble to anchor the top-heavy statue in place, its fate became the same as most of the other ancient wonders.  It toppled when an earthquake shook the island only fifty-four years after its construction in 226 BC.  The bronze, being precious, was salvaged for other purposes.  All that may remain of Colossus are the stones that filled its feet, but these cannot be picked out among the many large boulders of the rocky shore. 

David walks through one of the interior gates of the Gate d'Amboise.

Never the less, we visited the site where the mammoth statue once stood.  Although we can’t be sure whether we were in the exact spot.  Scholars today argue about whether the Colossus straddled the ancient harbor’s entrance or stood with both feet on one side.  Two pillars adorned with deer above their capitals are erected now in the locations thought to be the feet’s location(s).

The Palace of the Grand Master is in great conditions as much of it was restored by Musselini.

Moving into the Byzantine period, the tour brought us to gates inlaid in the old city’s walls, lots and lots of gates.  I am sure most I will not remember most in time, but one I will remember forever is the Gate d'Amboise.  This gate built by the Knights of Rhodes, contains three gates set apart by narrow twisting corridors making attackers essentially like “fish in a barrel”.  Before even trying to become said fish, attackers had to cross the moat protecting that area of the city.  The twisted corridors of the multi-gate system was so effective, knights killed fourteen thousand attacking Turks in one day at the Gate d'Amboise.

Heading into the Palace of the Grand Masters at the highest point in the Old City.

Just within the gate is the Palace of the Grand Master.  The Grand Master was a knight who oversaw all the logistical and political dealings of Rhodes, elected by his peers to serve in the position for life.  Downhill from the palace was the street of knights, so called because all of the tongues of knights, Spanish tongues, and French tongues and otherwise housed offices on the street. 

This ancient mosaic of Medusa was moved to the Palace of the Grand Master by Mussolini.  Similar mosaics adorn the floors all over the palace.

Upon reaching the Palace we decided to ditch the remaining ten stops on our tour and instead enter the palace for six euros and pick up the Palace of the Grand Master tour also provided in the app.  Much of the upper floors of the palace were destroyed after the Knights of Rhodes abandoned the island, moving to Malta and hence becoming the Knights of Malta.  That is not to say the upper floors (majority of the open palace rooms) is not worth a visit.  In the reconstruction, the Italians moved over forty floor mural dating to as far back as the first century from a nearby island to the palace floors.

Enjoying our Greek lunch and beers on a patio overlooking a busy square in the Old City.

These murals were moved by gluing a rug to the mural adorning and ancient floor of a home, cutting the edge of the mural from its surrounding floor, and carefully prying the mural up from the floor.  The rolled up carpets, and mural within were moved to the Palace of the Grand Master where they were unrolled and set into the floor. 

I enjoy samples of Rhodes wine in the wine store, more like a wine cave across the square form where we had lunch.

Having satisfied our (or at least my) longing for history and knowledge with our two hour sequence of tours, and with a growling stomach we set off to get some lunch.  We found a roof top patio overlooking a square of the old Jewish Quarter.  We ordered two Mythos beers and an appetizer platter for two with dolmas, taziki, hummus, cucumbers and tomatoes, and pita.  Then with a view of the ancient city walls all people wandering the square and streets below, we enjoyed our Greek lunch. 

After lunch we ventured across the square to a wine store, barely evident but for empty chairs in front of two brick arches.  More of a store that offers tastings than a bar, I sampled the wine of Rhodes, of which some of the varietals have been cultivated for three thousand years on the island, while David enjoyed tastes of the extensive scotch supply.  After spending a few hours enjoying a few glasses of wine in the mild weather, I left with three bubble wrapped bottles of Rhodos wine, a memento to remember my favorite Grecian city by.