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November19,2007

"Rhodes"

Finally, Rhodes.

after a couple days in Selçuk, Turkey, we took the bus down to Marmaris where we caught the ferry to Rhodes on Friday, November 2nd. Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese and actually, there is a rule in Latin that any town, city, or island smaller than Rhodes would decline in the locative case. anyhow, Rhodes was famous in the ancient times as a center of education and philosophy, and one of the ancient seven wonders of the world, the Colossus, also stood on the two points in Mandraki Harbor where ships would pass through beneath him in awe. (yes, i saw two of the ancient seven wonders of the world on this trip, and if we had gone to Bodrum--ancient Halicarnassus-- instead of Marmaris, we would've seen the Mausoleum too.)

but because the Colossus was made of bronze, and because most bronze objects were melted and reused by the victors, nothing of the statue is left, and only two pillars mark the possible spot where the statue stood. i'm not sure why there is a deer on each pillar, but that's what is there. it was kind of anticlimatic to see because i thought that the Rhodians would at least have a sign directing us to the spot or even a sign marking the pillars. but nope, we only found it on a map and guessed where the location was.

Rhodes is a beautiful city.

our pension was in New Town, but we spent most of our time wandering around the fortifications and castle in Old Town. what's amazing about this town is how it has incorporated its Medieval architecture with its modern buildings and roads, such that cars and motorbikes drive freely under and over the bridges, which were sort of like drawbridges over the moat. Old Town is basically a clutter of cobblestone streets left over from its Medieval history, with many of its Medieval buildings still intact and used as modern-day shops and business buildings. some of the buildings are preserved as archaeological and museum sites, like the Palace of the Grand Master, a gorgeous castle that even Mussolini wanted for his personal use as a weekend villa. Rhodes was definitely a nice change from the Hellenistic overdose that we all received from Turkey, and the fact that we could climb over fortresses in Rhodes made the adventure all the better.


the Palace of the Grand Master was one of the view sites that i had time to see in the city. it was a beautiful structure, and the classic example of a castle from childhood picture books. the original structure from the 14th Century was actually mostly destroyed in the 19th Century, but the Italians had rebuilt and restored it in a pseudo-Medieval style when they occupied Rhodes in the early 1900s. the rooms we saw were still preserved in the manner that Mussolini had rebuilt and restored for his personal use. (Mussolini never got to use this villa, however, because WWII broke out.) hence why there were many Roman floor mosaics from Kos that were installed in the palace, and for a long time, we were confused by the context of the mosaics when we walked by them. the structure is very impressive despite its pseudo-Medieval style, especially because it was comparable to the site of the Archaeological Museum in Rhodes, which is situated in a real preserved fortress.

and thus our fall break adventure ended on Sunday, November 4th, when we flew back home to Athens. from this trip, i have fallen in love with Istanbul and Rhodes, and am determined to make my way back there one day again, preferrably in the near future.