Líndos

A trip to Lindos is an essential excursion for every visitor to Rhodes. The road to Lindos runs south from Rhodes, at some distance from the east coast for much of the way.

Lindos is one of three ancient cities on the island (the others being Ialysos and Kameiros). With its magnificent situation between two bays, its combination of sandy beaches and bizarrely shaped limestone crags, its whitewashed houses, its medieval castle and ancient acropolis, Lindos is the most striking and impressive of the three.

Remains of the Neolithic period and finds in Mycenaean cemeteries bear witness to the occupation of this site, on the only natural harbor on the island, from the earliest times. During the Dorian period Lindos - a city mentioned in Homer - owned more than half the island. About 700 B.C. it founded a colony at Gela in Sicily. Its heyday was in the seventh and sixth centuries under the tyrant (sole ruler) Kleoboulos, one of the Seven Sages, who built a temple to the goddess of Lindos on the acropolis. Important historical sources found here were the "Temple Chronicle of Lindos" and a list of priests for the years 375-327 B.C. The city continued to be occupied and developed during the Hellenistic period and into late Roman times. A Byzantine castle was built on the acropolis, and in the 15th century the Knights of St John built this up into a mighty stronghold. During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, the ship owners and sea captains of Lindos grew wealthy, leaving handsome mansions to bear witness to their prosperity.

Just before Lindos, the road from Rhodes crosses a low pass, beyond which there is a fascinating view of the bay, the town and the acropolis. Cars must park at the entrance to the town, which is closed to all but pedestrian and donkey-borne traffic.

Walking through the narrow lanes of the town, visitors will see - in addition to the innumerable shops and stalls selling needlework and pottery - the typical whitewashed cube-shaped houses of the inhabitants and some of the handsome mansions of wealthy sea captains, built in stone with characteristic relief decoration.