31 Best Sights in Rhodes, Rhodes and the Dodecanese

A 15-minute climb (please don't ride a donkey), from the village center up to the Acropolis of Lindos leads past a gauntlet of Lindian women who spread out their lace and embroidery like fresh laundry over the rocks. The final approach ascends a steep flight of stairs, past a marvelous 2nd-century BC relief of the prow of a Lindian ship, carved into the rock.

The entrance takes you through the medieval castle built by the Knights of St. John, then to the Byzantine Chapel of St. John on the next level. The Romans, too, left their mark on the acropolis, with a temple dedicated to Diocletian. On the upper terraces, begun by classical Greeks around 300 BC, are the remains of elaborate porticoes and stoas, commanding an immense sweep of sea and making a powerful statement on behalf of Athena and the Lydians (who dedicated the monuments on the Acropolis to her). The lofty white columns of the temple and stoa on the summit must have presented a magnificent picture. The main portico of the stoa had 42 Doric columns, at the center of which an opening led to the staircase up to the Propylaia (or sanctuary). The Temple of Athena Lindia at the very top is surprisingly modest, given the drama of the approach. As was common in the 4th century BC, both the front and the rear are flanked by four Doric columns. Numerous inscribed statue bases were found all over the summit, attesting in many cases to the work of Lindian sculptors, who were clearly second to none.

The medieval fortress of Monolithos—so named for the jutting, 750-foot monolith on which it is constructed—was built by the Knights of St. John in 1480 and rises above a fairy-tale landscape of deep-green forests and sharp cliffs plunging into the sea. Inside the stronghold (accessible only by a steep path and series of stone steps) there is a chapel, and the ramparts provide magnificent views of Rhodes's emerald inland and the island of Halki. The small pebble beach of Fourni beneath the castle is a delightful place for a swim.

This grand building, with its fairy-tale towers, crenellated ramparts, and more than 150 rooms, crowns the top of the Street of Knights and is the place to begin any tour of Rhodes. Unscathed during the Turkish siege of 1522, the palace was partly destroyed in 1856 by an explosion of ammunition stored nearby in the cellars of the Church of St. John. The present structure—a Mussolini-era Italian reconstruction of the 1930s—is said to have remained fairly close to the original in its exterior, but inside was rebuilt with all the restraint of your typical Fascist dictatorship. The building was, after all, reimagined as a holiday abode for King Vittorio Emmanuele III of Italy, and later Il Duce himself (Mussolini), whose name is still engraved at the entrance. Today the palace's collection of antiques and antiquities includes Hellenistic and Roman mosaic floors from Italian excavations in Kos, and in the permanent exhibition downstairs are extensive displays, maps, and plans showing the layout of the city that will help you get oriented before wandering through the labyrinthine Old Town.

This historic cobblestone lane, known in Greek as Ippoton, runs east from the Palace of the Grand Master to the harbor, and was once part of a longer path that wound its way to the Acropolis. During its medieval heyday it became a residential quarter. It is bordered on both sides by the seven Inns of the Tongues, auberges where visiting Knights of the Order of St. John were domiciled according to their spoken language. These were heavily renovated during the 1930s, under Italian occupation, and today mostly hold consulates and government institutions. They are nevertheless wonderfully atmospheric to wander. The most elaborate example is the Inn of France, whose ornately carved facade bears heraldic patterns, fleur de lis, and an inscription that dates the building to 1492 and its commission by Emery d'Ambroise.

As you travel south along the east coast, a strange sight meets you: an assemblage of buildings that look as if they have been transplanted from Morocco. In fact, this spectacular mosaic-tile bath complex was built in 1929 by the Italians. As far back as the early 2nd century BC, area mineral springs were prized; the great physician Hippocrates of Kos extolled these springs for alleviating liver, kidney, and rheumatic ailments. Though the baths are no longer in use, the ornate rotunda has been restored (art exhibitions are often on view), as have peristyles and pergolas, and you can wander through the beautifully landscaped grounds—note the pebble mosaics, an ancient folk tradition come alive again, with mosaics of fish, deer, and other images—and have a drink or snack in the attractive café. A pretty beach rings a nearby cove.

One of the great medieval monuments in the Mediterranean, the walls of Rhodes are wonderfully restored and illustrate the engineering capabilities as well as the financial and human resources available to the Knights of St. John. For 200 years the knights strengthened the walls by thickening them, up to 40 feet in places, and curving them so as to deflect cannonballs. The moat between the inner and outer walls never contained water; it was a device to prevent invaders from constructing siege towers. You can get a sense of the enclosed city's massive scale by walking for free inside the moat; entrances can be found at the gates of St. Athanasius and Ambroise.

Part of the walkway that runs the 4 km (2½ miles) along the top of the walls is accessible through the Palace of the Grand Master ticket office; free tours are run daily between noon and 3 pm.

The Hospital of the Knights (now the island's archaeological museum) was completed in 1489 and surrounds a Byzantine courtyard, off which are the refectory and wards where the wealthy institution once administered to the knights and townspeople. These wonderful surroundings are enhanced with findings from Rhodes's three ancient cities (Ialysos, Kameiros, and Lindos) and the nearby islands, including a magnificent collection of ceramic amphoras and oenochoe (wine jugs), which inevitably fell into the possession of the islands' wealthy merchants. Successive rooms elegantly show the evolution of Attic pottery, from early geometric deigns to the red-on-black figures of the 5th century BC. Among its collection are also two well-known representations of Aphrodite: the Aphrodite of Rhodes, who, while bathing, pushes aside her hair as if she's listening; and a standing figure, known as Aphrodite Thalassia, or "of the sea," as she was discovered in the water off the northern city beach. There are also two 6th-century BC kouros (statues of idealized male youth) that were found in the nearby ancient city of Kameiros, and, in a beautiful 5th-century BC funerary stela, a young woman named Crito, hair cut short in mourning, gives a farewell embrace to her mother, Timarista, who is already moving outside the frame, as she leaves the world.

A graceful building with a beautiful bell tower probably antedates the Knights of St. John, though the bell tower bears the arms of Grand Master d'Aubusson with the dates 1484–90. Frescoes in the elaborate interior were painted in 1779 by Gregory of Symi, and the black-and-white hohlaki pebble floor is typical of the area.

Visitors are required to dress appropriately, which means no shorts.

Housed in a stone-vaulted warehouse of the Knights, this small room exhibits finely made ceramics, wooden tools and utensils, and costumes and textiles from the various regions of the Dodecanese. There's little to explain what you're seeing, but the attendant can offer some information.

Though the beach is pebbly rather than sandy, a handy location right at the edge of Old Town makes this seaside strip immensely popular, and it's lined with chairs and umbrellas. An offshore diving platform is a huge hit with kids and what seems to be most of the teenage population of Rhodes. What you won't find here is solitude, and what semblance of peace and quiet you might find will likely be interrupted by an endless stream of hawkers selling everything from trinkets to cold drinks. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets; showers; water sports. Best for: swimming; walking.

A deeply shaded glen watered by seven mountain springs (epta piges in Greek) is made all the more photogenic thanks to the imported peacocks that flaunt their plumage in the woods around the pools. The waters are channeled through a 164-yard-long tunnel, which you can walk through, emerging at the edge of a cascading dam and a small man-made lake where you can swim. Here an enterprising local shepherd began serving simple fare in 1945 and his sideline turned into the busy waterside taverna and tourist site of today. Despite its many visitors, the beauty of the springs remains unspoiled.

The town's harborside cathedral is a 1920s Italian-built replica of the Knights' Church of St. John in the Old Town, which was destroyed in an accidental gunpowder explosion in the mid-1800s after the Turks began using its basement as a storage facility. The outside is drably slavish to the idea of the Gothic original, but the church interior is rather magnificent, illuminated by the Byzantine-style frescoes of the great modern Greek painter Fotis Kontoglou.

Faliraki's reputation is better these days, after authorities cracked down 20 years ago on the bars that once made this the hedonistic party capital of Greece. It remains the most popular beach on Rhodes, and will be your idea of paradise or hell, depending on what you think of crowded sands backed by fun parks, supermarkets, all-inclusive resorts, and fast-food joints. Stretches of the 5 km (3 miles) of fine sand are a little less cramped than others, such as the southern end, which is officially designated as a naturist beach. Beyond its southern tip lies the beautiful Anthony Quinn Bay, named after the Mexican-American actor who loved it so much while filming The Guns of Navarone in 1960 that he bought the land. Years later the Greek government reclaimed it and the legal battle that ensued continued even after the actor's death. Its tiny shore fills up fast but the emerald waters here are the best for snorkeling on the island. Buses run between Rhodes Town and Faliraki throughout the day and late into the evening. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (free); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: nudists; partiers; swimming; walking.

This circular fortress, built by the Knights of St. John in the 15th century, guards the entrance to Mandraki Harbor, near a row of picturesque but disused windmills.

This is one of the three ancient cities of Rhodes, along with Lindos and Ialysos. Kameiros was for a time the most powerful of them all, and the first to cut its own currency, until earthquakes in the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC sapped the city's might. After that, its citizens just ebbed away. It was excavated by the Italians in 1929 and lies on three levels on a slope above the sea. Most of the city—apparently never fortified—that is visible today dates to the classical period and later, and includes an acropolis, a large reservoir, a gridlike pattern of streets lined with houses and shops, and several temples. The hill hides many more ruins, yet to be unearthed.

This ruined-yet-still impressive fortress, built by the Knights of St. John in the late 15th century, rises high above the sea on the coast just north of Mt. Avrios, with good views in every direction. Above its entrance you can still make out the engraved coats of arms of two Grand Masters.

Stretching uninterrupted for several miles, Lachania Beach lies below the unspoiled, whitewashed village of the same name, one of the most picturesque in Rhodes. Though stretches of the sand are lined with sun beds, it's easy to find a fairly secluded spot backed by scrub-covered dunes. Amenities: food and drink; water sports. Best for: solitude; swimming; walking.

Icons and frescoes from religious buildings throughout Rhodes Town (most of them long since destroyed) are displayed within this 11th-century church. The building was transformed into a mosque under Turkish rule, but later stripped of all remnants of this period under Italian administration as part of a wider attempt to revive the Hospitaler character of the city. Closes at 3:30 pm.

This 19th-century neo-Gothic structure stands on the site of the 14th-century Church of St. John, patron of the Knights of St. John and the final resting place of many members of the order. Used as an ammunition storehouse during Turkish occupation, the church was reduced to rubble in an explosion sparked by lightning in 1856.

What was once the main harbor, in use since the 5th century BC, adjoins the commercial harbor on the east side of Old Town and is home to the city's municipal buildings and an open-air bazaar. Inter-island catamarans sail from here now, but it was once said to be the site of one of the greatest acheivements of antiquity. Today, two bronze deer statues mark the spot where legend says the city's famous Colossus, a huge bronze statue of the sun god, Helios, once straddled the Mandraki Harbor entrance. Completed by the sculptor Chares of Lindos in the late 3rd century BC, the 110-foot-high figure only stood for around 50 years. In 227 BC, an earthquake razed the city and toppled the Colossus. After the calamity, the Delphic oracle advised the Rhodians to let the great Colossus remain where it had fallen. So there it lay for some eight centuries, until AD 654 when it was sold as scrap metal and carted off to Syria, allegedly by a caravan of 900 camels.

Soaring vaults are all that remains of what was once a magnificent Gothic church, completed by the Knights of St. John in 1456. The knights believed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, provided them and Rhodes special protection against the ever-present threat of a Muslim invasion; now kids play among the scattered ruins and musical events are sometimes held here.

The "Valley of the Butterflies" lives up to its name in all but one important regard. Its star attraction aren't actually butterflies. In summer the callimorpha quadripunctaria, a species of day-flying moth known as the Jersey tiger, cluster by the thousands around the low bushes of the pungent storax plant, which grows all over the area. In recent years numbers of the moths have diminished, partly owing to busloads of tourists clapping their hands to see the creatures fly up in dense clouds—an antic that causes the creatures to deplete their scant energy reserves and is strongly discouraged. Access to the valley involves an easy walk up an idyllic yet crowded trail through a pretty wood, past a stream and ponds.

A lovely bay is ringed by soft and quiet sands, where it's easy to find a relatively secluded spot. The clear, calm waters are ideal for swimming, though winds tend to pick up in the afternoon, a boon for windsurfers. A few tavernas prepare delightfully simple seafood meals. Amenities: food and drink. Best for: nudists; solitude; swimming; windsurfing.

This small town perches on the wooded slopes of Mt. Acramitis above a vast, fertile valley. A popular stop on the tourist trail, Siana is known for its fragrant honey and for souma (a very strong, sweet wine that resembles a grape-flavor schnapps); look for stands selling both.

About 2 km (1 mile) to the west of Rhodes's town center, atop Mt. Smith, are the freely accessible ruins of the Acropolis of Rhodes, a fine example of the stately sanctuaries that the ancient Greeks built atop many of their cities. The complex includes a theater that the Italians restored in the early 20th century, a stadium, three restored columns of the Temple of Apollo Pythios, the scrappy remains of the Temple of Athena Polias, a Nymphaia, and an Odeon. For a dramatic view, make your way to the westernmost edge of the summit, which drops via a sharp and almost inaccessible cliff to the shore below, now lined with enormous hotels.

Escape the crowds by trekking to the Tomb of Kleoboulos, which is incorrectly named after Lindos's 6th-century BC poet and sage; it's actually the final resting place of a wealthy family of the 1st and 2nd century BC. After about 3 km (2 miles), a 30-minute scenic walk on a stony path across the headland (on the north side of Lindos Bay), you encounter the small, rounded stone tomb. You can peer inside and see the candle marks, which testify to its later use as the Church of St. Emilianos, or admire the dramatic views of Lindos and Vlycha Bay all around you.