Mark Read

Dodecanese

Ever pined for the old Greece, where timeless islands beckon modern-day adventurers just as they did Odysseus and Alexander? Enter the far-flung Dodecanese archipelago, curving through the southeastern Aegean parallel to the ever-visible shoreline of Turkey. The footprints of everyone from Greeks and Romans to crusading medieval knights, and Byzantine and Ottoman potentates to 20th-century Italian bureaucrats, are found here. Beyond better-known Rhodes and Kos, enigmatic islands beg to be explored.

Hikers and naturalists flock to Tilos, while climbers scale the limestone cliffs in Kalymnos. Aesthetes adore the neoclassical mansions of Symi, Halki and Kastellorizo, and kitesurfers blow in to Karpathos for its legendary winds. Elsewhere around the Dodecanese, divers can explore underwater caves and ancient wrecks, archaeologists and history buffs let their imaginations loose on a bevy of ancient sites, while sybarites worship Helios on myriad beaches, far from the package crowds.

Top attractions

These are our favorite local haunts, touristy spots, and hidden gems throughout Dodecanese.

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Acropolis of Lindos
A short, steep-stepped footpath climbs the rocky 116m-high headland above the village to reach Lindos’ beautifully preserved Acropolis. First fortified in the 6th century BC, the clifftop is now enclosed by battlements constructed by the Knights of St John. Once within the walls, you’re confronted by ancient remains that include the Temple to Athena Lindia and a 20-columned Hellenistic stoa. Silhouetted against the blue sky, the stark pillars are dazzling, while the long-range coastal views are out of this world.
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Archaeological Museum
A weathered, sun-kissed stone lion, visible from the street, invites visitors into the magnificent 15th-century Knights' Hospital that holds Rhodes’ superb archaeology museum. Exhibits range through several upstairs galleries, and across beautiful gardens to an annexe that’s open shorter hours in summer (9am to 4.50pm). Highlights include the exquisite Aphrodite Bathing marble statue from the 1st century BC, a pavilion displaying wall-mounted mosaics, and a reconstructed burial site from 1630 BC that held a helmeted warrior alongside his horse.
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Palace of the Grand Master
From the outside, this magnificent castle-like palace looks much as it did when erected by the 14th-century Knights Hospitaller. During the 19th century, however, it was devastated by an explosion, so the interior is now an Italian reconstruction, completed in the '18th year of the Fascist Era' (1940). Dreary chambers upstairs hold haphazard looted artworks, so the most interesting sections are the twin historical museums downstairs, one devoted to ancient Rhodes and the other to the island’s medieval history.
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Street of the Knights
Austere and somewhat forbidding, the Street of the Knights (Ippoton) was home from the 14th century to the Knights Hospitaller who ruled Rhodes. The knights were divided into seven ‘tongues’, or languages, according to their birthplace – England, France, Germany, Italy, Aragon, Auvergne and Provence – each responsible for a specific section of the fortifications. As wall displays explain, the street holds an ‘inn’, or palace, for each tongue. Its modern appearance, though, owes much to Italian restorations during the 1930s.
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Monastery of St John the Theologian
As this immense 11th-century monastery-cum-fortress remains active, only a small portion is open to visitors. The entrance courtyard leads to a sumptuously frescoed chapel, fronted by marble columns taken from an ancient temple. Don’t expect to attend a service; daily worship is at 3am! The museum of church treasures upstairs displays the original edict establishing the monastery, signed by the Byzantine emperor in 1088.
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Monastery of the Apocalypse
Nestled amid the pines halfway to Hora, the Monastery of the Apocalypse focuses on the cave where St John lived as a hermit and received his revelation. Pilgrims and less-than-devout cruise passengers alike stream into the chapel built over the recess to see the rocky pillow where the saint rested his head, the handhold with which he’d haul himself up from his prayers and the stone slab that served as his writing desk.
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Hora
The Old Town’s central commercial and residential district, south of the Street of the Knights, is known as the Hora. Having acquired its current appearance following the Ottoman takeover of 1522, it’s also called the Turkish Quarter. The most important of many churches that became mosques is the colourful, pink-domed Mosque of Süleyman, at the top of Sokratous. Across the street, the Muslim Library, founded in 1793 by Turkish Rhodian Ahmed Hasuf, houses Persian and Arabic manuscripts plus handwritten Korans.
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Moni Taxiarhou Mihail Panormiti
Near Symi’s southern tip, beyond the scented pine forests of the high interior, spectacular Panormitis Bay is home to this large monastery. Monasteries have stood here since the 5th century but the present building dates from the 18th century. The principal church contains an intricately carved wooden iconostasis, frescoes and an icon of St Michael, protector of sailors and patron saint of Symi.
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Caldera
A visit to the caldera is like stepping into a science fiction movie, cows grazing amid strange coloured rocks in what resembles a lunar landscape. The largest crater is Stefanos, where you can examine the multicoloured 100°C fumaroles, listen to their hissing and smell the sulphurous vapours. The surface is soft and hot, making sturdy footwear essential. A track leads to the wilder craters of Polyvotis and Alexandros. Take great care here as it's unsupervised, not fenced and fumaroles are around the edge. If you're staying on the island, get here by 11am to avoid the busloads of day troopers that arrive from Kos.