Kos

Area of island: 295 sq. km/114 sq. mi

Altitude: 846m/2,776ft

Population: 12,000

Chief town: Kos

Kos (Italian Coo, Turkish Istanköy) lies at the mouth of the Gulf of Kos, which cuts deep into the coast of Asia Minor. It was separated from the Bodrum (Halikarnassos) peninsula, five km/3mi northeast, by the collapse of a rift valley in the Pliocene period. It is the largest island in the Dodecanese after Rhodes.

A range of limestone hills, rising to 846m/2,776ft in Mt Díkaios (ancient Oromedon), traverses the island for almost its entire length from west to east. Unlike most other Aegean islands, Kos has a population that is increasing in numbers. Their main sources of income are agriculture and horticulture, the rearing of small livestock, fishing, crafts (particularly pottery and weaving) and, increasingly, the tourist trade. Kos has been well populated since Neolithic times. About 700 B.C., together with the other five cities of the Hexapolis (Knidos, Halikarnassos, Lindos, Ialysos and Kameiros), Kos was an outpost of the Dorian League of cities on the Carian coast and the neighboring islands. The earliest capital of the island, Astypálaia, was situated in the wide bay at the southwest end; another important place, Halasama, is half-way along the south coast. The island was celebrated for the oldest cult site of the healing god Asklepios and for a medical school of which the most famous representative was Hippokrates (fifth century B.C.). The sanctuary of Asklepios was destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 554, and on its ruins was built the monastery of the Panayía tou Alsoús (Our Lady of the Grove - recalling the ancient sacred grove).

The Byzantines were succeeded as rulers of the island by the Knights of St John (1309-1523), who in the 14th century established the headquarters of their order in the island's capital, Narangia (now the town of Kos).

Kos was captured by the Turks some years earlier than Rhodes. The island was occupied by Italy in 1912, during the Balkan War, but was returned to Greece in 1948.

There's an airfield at Antimákhia, 27km/17mi southwest. Regular flights Athens-Kos, daily; Rhodes-Kos and Léros-Kos, several times weekly.

Regular boat services from and to Athens (Piraeus), six times weekly (21 hours; cars carried). Local connections in the Dodecanese: Rhodes - Symi - Tílos - Nísyros - Kos - Kálymnos - Léros - Lipsí - Pátmos - Arkí - Agathonísi - Sámos and Rhodes - Kos - Kálymnos - Astypálaia. Excursions from Bodrum in Turkey.