Apollo's columns
The Hellenistic age standing on the skyline.
MattiPaavola — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Notafly2 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Burkhard Mücke — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Burkhard Mücke — CC BY-SA 4.0
The Acropolis of Rhodes is the Greek city before the Knights: on Monte Smith hill west of town the restored columns of Pythian Apollo stand against the sky — remains of the Hellenistic Rhodes that ranked among the whole Mediterranean's greatest cities (the Colossus stood in it) — with the wholly rebuilt stadium below (600 BC in origin): run its marble track as the Rhodian Games' athletes did, the small odeon beside it. It is a sunset visit by excellence: the hill is the city's highest ground and the sun drowns in open Aegean behind the columns — the grass a people's picnic terrace, Rhodian Athena and Zeus in ruins at the crest's north. Free and always open — twenty minutes' climb from the western gates or city bus 5: the Rhodes that precedes the Middle Ages by eight centuries, without ticket or fence.
The Hellenistic age standing on the skyline.
A 600 BC track still run today.
Monte Smith hill, 85100 Rhodes
Hafiz Ahmed Agha LibraryA small Ottoman building with a stone frontage and a latticed window on **Sokrat15 minutes walk4.4
The Medieval City of RhodesRhodes' old town is Europe's largest inhabited medieval city: the Knights of St.16 minutes walk4.7
The Grand Master's Palace & Street of the KnightsThe Grand Master's Palace is the Knights' city's crown: a fortress within the fo17 minutes walk4.7
Street of the KnightsA paved stone street climbing some six hundred metres from the harbour to the Pa18 minutes walk4.7
The Archaeological Museum (Knights' Hospital)Rhodes' museum is a building before a collection: the Knights' New Hospital (14819 minutes walk4.5Not here, nor astride the harbour mouths as the postcards paint — most likely near Helios' temple in the lower city, or where the Knights' palace later rose. The hill gives you his city, not his spot — his full story waits at the Mandraki page.