The view
The whole eastern coast and Haraki bay from above.
Ввласенко — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ввласенко — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Ввласенко — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Carlo Pelagalli — CC BY-SA 3.0
Safe with serious care, and three things must be taken into account. **The path** is dirt, steeply sloping and gravelly, and can slide underfoot — closed shoes with good soles, not sandals. **The ruins themselves are unsecured**: there are no railings at the sea-facing edges, and some walls are collapsed and can shed stones — stay on the clear tracks and don't climb the remains. **And the heat**: no shade at all, no water, no facilities on site. With small children the site is not recommended at all.
The Knights Hospitaller built a **network of castles and towers** around the island on high ground overlooking the sea, so that each castle could see the two beside it. When a hostile fleet appeared, the first lit a fire or made a smoke signal, the next relayed it, and the warning reached the **city of Rhodes** very quickly — an effective early-warning system centuries before the telegraph. Among them: **Feraklos**, **Monolithos**, **Kritinia**, **Archangelos**, **Lindos** and **Asklipio**. Seeing two or three on a drive explains how the island was governed and defended.
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The ruins of a castle on a rocky headland above the sea near the village of **Haraki** on the eastern coast, and the **largest of the Knights Hospitaller's castles** on Rhodes outside the city. Its position was carefully chosen: the whole eastern coast is visible from here, and it formed part of a **chain of castles** the knights built around the island, exchanging light and smoke signals to warn of invasion — a medieval early-warning system. Before the knights the site was fortified in the Byzantine period, and the knights also used it as a **prison**. Feraklos was **the last stronghold to fall** to the Ottomans in 1522, after the city of Rhodes itself had gone. What remains today is **genuine unrestored ruin**: broken walls and towers, vaults and the remains of a church, with no signage, no guards and no tickets. ⚠ The climb is a **steep dirt path** of 20–30 minutes from Haraki, **with no shade and no railings** — and the edges drop away to the sea. ⚠ It is **free and always open** simply because it is unmanaged.
The whole eastern coast and Haraki bay from above.
Walls, vaults and a church as time left them.
No guards, no crowd — you will probably be alone.
Haraki, 85102 Archangelos, Rhodes