General information of Rhodes by Kamen_mali
The island of Rhodes is, after Crete, Evia and Lesbos, the largest Greek island and, along Sicilly and Cyprus, one of the great islands of the Mediterranean.Rhodes is a country unto itself, and in the years before tourism, it was easily self-sufficient. It lies almost exactly halfway between Piraeus and Cyprus, 18 km off the coast of Asia Minor, and it was long considered a bridge between Europe and the East.
Geologically similar to Turkish mainland, it was probably once a part of it, separated by one of the frequent volcanic upheavals this volatile region has experienced.
Rhodes saw successive waves of settlement, culminating with the arrival of the Dorian Greeks from Argos and Laconia sometime early in the first millennium BC. They settled in Ialyssos, Lindos and Kameiros and together with Dorians from Kos, and from Knidos and Halicarnassos in Asia Minor, formed a ring of loose confederation, later known as the Hexapolis (Six Cities).
The Rhodes has a rich and interesting history, but, for me, the most interesting is about Knights.
Rhodes was a crucial stop on the road to the Holy Land during the Crusades. It came briefly under Venetian influence, then Byzantine, then Genoese, but in 1309., when the Knights of St. John took the city from the Genoese masters, its most glorious modern era began.
