The residential street
Two rows of courtyard houses with wells, climbing the slope.
Jebulon — CC0 · Максим Улитин — CC BY 3.0 · Максим Улитин — CC BY 3.0 · Максим Улитин — CC BY 3.0
**Lindos** on a first visit: a spectacular acropolis on a rock above a white village and a turquoise bay, the image you know from pictures of Rhodes — but **very crowded**, and it needs a hard climb. **Kamiros** if you prefer **archaeology to scenery**: far quieter, with a complete plan, so you understand how a Greek city was built and lived in — which Lindos does not give you. The two are on opposite sides of the island (Lindos south-east, Kamiros west) and don't combine comfortably in one day.
By **regional bus** from Rhodes's western terminal towards the west coast — check the timetable in advance: services are **few**, perhaps two or three a day, and plan the return before you set out or you will be stranded. The trip takes 45–60 minutes, with the stop on the main road and a short walk uphill to the entrance. ⚠ The alternatives are a **taxi** (expensive both ways) or an **organised tour** combining Kamiros with the Valley of the Butterflies and Filerimos in half a day — the most efficient option without a car.
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A complete Greek city on a slope overlooking the sea on the western coast of Rhodes, sometimes called **"the Pompeii of Rhodes"** — because no later town was built over it, so its plan survived entire under the earth until it was uncovered in the nineteenth century. **Kamiros** was one of three ancient Rhodian cities (with Lindos and Ialysos) that united in 408 BC to found the city of Rhodes itself. Kamiros then declined gradually until it was abandoned — and that abandonment is what preserved it. What you see today is an **ordered Hellenistic town** on three terraces: the public square and temples at the bottom; a straight residential street climbing between two rows of **houses with their courtyards, wells and baths**; and at the top the acropolis, a temple of Athena and a **great cistern** that fed the town through a network of clay pipes still visible. ⚠ The site is **entirely exposed with no shade**, and lies about **thirty kilometres** west of the city. ⚠ Don't confuse it with **Lindos** — that is an acropolis on a rock above a white village; this is a complete residential town.
Two rows of courtyard houses with wells, climbing the slope.
Clay water-distribution pipes still visible.
The whole town falling towards the western coast.
Ancient Kamiros, 85106 Rhodes