Amazing Rhodes Unveiled to NeTTT’s Attendees
Rhodes, the island of the Knights
Rhodes (or Rodos) island is located at the southeastern edge of the archipelagos of the Dodecanese island complex and the Aegean Sea. Beautiful and with a long and rich history, it faces the shores of Asia Minor covering an area of 1398 square kilometers in a landscape which mainly comprises of hills and low mountains, covered in their majority with forests.
The name Rhodes is believed to have been coined from the Phoenician word ‘Erod’ which means ‘snakes’. In the primeval times, the island was filled with countless numbers of snakes. The island has been called names like Rodi by the Italians, Rodis by Ladino and Rodos by Turks.
Ancient history
Rhodes has been inhabited since the Stone Age, first by the Cretans, who were the first settlers on the island, and later by the Phoenicians and the Dorians who must have installed themselves on the island prior to the Trojan War (1184 BC). After the Trojan war, the island enjoyed rapid progress and developed the ancient civilization of Rhodes , examples of which can be seen nowadays in the antiquities of the three largest and most powerful cities of the island, Lindos, Ialyssos and Kamiros. At the end of the 5th century BC these cities united into a single political force and founded Rhodes, which reached its acme during the 3rd century BC. During that period, famous artists, philosophers and writers lived on the island. From the 2nd century BC it became an ally of Rome and it gained its independence in 297 AD when Diocletian joined the Provincia insularum of the Roman Empire.