Sights in Dodecanese
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Rhodes Town Beach
The town beach begins north of Mandraki and continues around the island's northernmost point and down the west side of the New Town. The best spots will depend on the prevailing winds but tend to be on the east side.
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Museum
Menetes has a small but well-presented Museum on the right as you come in from Pigadia. Opening hours are upon request - the owner of Taverna Manolis will open it up for you.
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Avenue of the Knights
An appropriate place to begin an exploration of the Old Town is the imposing cobblestone Avenue of the Knights where the knights lived. The knights were divided into seven 'tongues' or languages, according to their place of origin - England, France, Germany, Italy, Aragon, Auvergne and Provence - and each were responsible for protecting a section of the bastion. The Grand Master, who was in charge, lived in the palace, and each tongue was under the auspices of a bailiff.
To this day the street exudes a noble and forbidding aura, despite modern offices now occupying most of the inns. Its lofty buildings stretch in a 600m-long unbroken wall of honey-coloured stone blocks, a…
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Nisyros Volcano
There are five craters in the caldera of Greece's only active volcano. A path descends into the largest one, Stefanos, where you can examine the multicoloured fumaroles, listen to their hissing and smell their sulphurous vapours. The surface is soft and hot, making sturdy footwear essential.
The islanders call the second and smaller, yet wilder crater Polyvotis because, during the Great War between the gods and the Titans, the Titan Polyvotis annoyed Poseidon so much that the god tore off a chunk of Kos and threw it at him. This rock pinned Polyvotis under it and became the island of Nisyros. The hapless Polyvotis from that day forth has been groaning and sighing while tr…
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Acropolis of Rhodes
The Acropolis of Rhodes was the site of the ancient Hellenistic city of Rhodes. The hill is named after the English admiral Sir Sydney Smith, who watched for Napoleon's fleet from here in 1802. It has superb views.
The restored 2nd-century-AD stadium once staged competitions in preparation for the Olympic Games. The adjacent theatre is a reconstruction of one used for lectures by the Rhodes School of Rhetoric. Steps above here lead to the Temple of Pythian Apollo, with four re-erected columns. This unenclosed site can be reached on city bus 5.
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Palace of the Grand Masters
A truly magnificent 14th-century palace, it was destroyed in the gunpowder explosion of 1856 and the Italians rebuilt it in a grandiose manner, with a lavish interior, intending it as a holiday home for Mussolini and King Emmanuel III. It is now a museum, containing sculpture, mosaics taken from Kos by the Italians and antique furniture.
An around €10 inclusive ticket covers the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Decorative Arts.
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Kastro
Heading west of Skala you hit the big Astypalea outback. Here is a land of gnarled, bare and rolling hills with scarcely a sealed road to speak of. It's all driveable (just), but you'll need a solid 4WD or off-road motorcycle. An access road peels upwards northwesterly from Skala and follows the hill ridges past Psili Vigla to a road junction at Stavros after 6km. Head north and follow the sign to the so-called Kastro , which is reached via a detour after another 2km.
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Archaeological Museum
Housed in the old 15th-century knights' hospital is the Archaeological Museum. Its most famous exhibit is the exquisite Parian marble statuette, the Aphrodite of Rhodes, a 1st-century-BC adaptation of a Hellenistic statue. Less impressive to most is the 4th-century-BC Afroditi Thalassia in the next room.
A around €10 inclusive ticket covers the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Decorative Arts.
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Mosque of Süleyman
Bearing many legacies of its Ottoman past is the Hora (M0144). During Turkish times churches were converted to mosques, and many more Muslim houses of worship were built from scratch, although most are now dilapidated. The most important is the pink-domed Mosque of Süleyman (M0145) Built in 1522 to commemorate the Ottoman victory against the knights, it was renovated in 1808.
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Tallaras Roman Baths
Analipsi (also known as Maltezana) is 7km beyond Marmari in a fertile valley on the isthmus. A former Maltese pirates' lair, it's a scattered, pleasantly laid-back settlement with a long sand and pebble beach, shaded by more ever-welcoming tamarisk trees. The water is clean and shallow. There are the remains of the Tallaras Roman Baths with mosaics on the settlement's outskirts.
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Acropolis of Lindos
It's about a 10-minute climb to the entrance gate of the Acropolis, spectacularly perched atop a 116m (380ft) rock. Once inside, sights include a warship hewn out of the rock by the sculptor Pythokritos, the remains of a 20-columned Hellenistic stoa, a Byzantine church, a 5th-century BC propylaeum (temple porch) and a 4th-century Temple to Athena.
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Jewish Quarter
The Jewish Quarter is an almost forgotten sector of Rhodes Old Town, where life continues at an unhurried pace and local residents live seemingly oblivious to the hubbub of the Hora, no more than a few blocks away. This area of quiet streets and sometimes dilapidated houses was once home to a thriving Jewish community.
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Aquarium
If you fancy a fishy experience, the Aquarium is worth a look. The Art Deco building was built during the 1930s by the Italians as a biological research station. Visitors can view anthozoa, molluscs, crabs, echinoderms, sea turtles and specimens from up to 12 types of fish families.
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Potami Gorge
The very picturesque Potami Gorge is oleander-strewn and goat-inhabited. It can be best appreciated on a walk from Livadia, the main town on Tilos, as part of a loop that also includes Lethra beach, an undeveloped pebble and sand cove 3km (1.8mi) north of Livadia.
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Museum of the Decorative Arts
The Museum of the Decorative Arts houses a collection of artefacts from around the Dodecanese. An around €10 inclusive ticket covers the Palace of the Grand Masters, the Archaeological Museum and the Museum of the Decorative Arts.
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Kahal Shalom synagogue
Kahal Shalom synagogue, built in 1577, has a commemorative plaque to the many members of Hora's Jewish population who were sent to Auschwitz during the Nazi occupation. Jews still worship here and it is usually open in the morning.
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Roman Cistern
Archaeological buffs may care to explore the underground remains of a Roman Cistern, reached by heading up the approach road and looking for the brown-and-yellow sign on the left to the 'catacombs'.
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Muslim Library
The 18th-century Muslim Library was founded in 1794 by Turkish Rhodian Ahmed Hasuf. It houses a small number of Persian and Arabic manuscripts and a collection of Korans handwritten on parchment.
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Mosque of Murad Reis
In the grounds of this graceful mosque are a Turkish cemetery and the Villa Cleobolus, where Lawrence Durrell lived in the 1940s, writing Reflections on a Marine Venus.
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Inn of France
The Inn of France is the most ornate and distinctive of all the inns. On the opposite side of the street is a wrought-iron gate in front of a Turkish garden.
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Palace of Villiers de l'sle Adam
After Sultan Süleyman had taken the city, it was Villiers de l'sle who had the humiliating task of arranging the knights' departure from the island.
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Basilica of Agia Sophia
Follow a turn-off for 500m to the remains of the 5th-century Basilica of Agia Sophia, where two chapels stand amid mosaic fragments and columns.
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Temple of Aphrodite
On Plateia Symis, there are the remains of a 3rd-century-BC Temple of Aphrodite, one of the few ancient ruins in the Old Town.
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Basilica of Agios Vasilios
Turn right from Telendos' quay and you will pass the ruins of the early Christian Basilica of Agios Vasilios .
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Chapelle Française
The Chapelle Française is embellished with a statue of the Virgin and Child.
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