Explore Rhodes

The Acropolis of Rhodes is the upper town of the ancient city, on Monte Smith hill about 3 km south-west of the modern centre. Unlike most acropolises it was never walled: its terraces held sanctuaries and public buildings of the 3rd–2nd century BC, and visitors see the partly re-erected Temple of Apollo above a restored stadium and a small theatre.

The Suleymaniye Mosque is a former mosque in the medieval town of Rhodes, first built after the Ottoman conquest of 1522 and named after Sultan Suleiman. The present building dates from 1808 and has three domed rooms behind a red-plastered facade and a minaret. It was restored from 1988 to 2005 and has been closed since 2014, so visitors see it from the street.

The Medieval City of Rhodes is the walled old town of Rhodes, built up by the Knights Hospitaller between 1309 and 1523 and enclosed by a wall about 4 km long. In the upper town, the cobbled Street of the Knights is lined with the inns of the order's national groups. The town has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1988.

The Palace of the Grand Master is the Gothic castle at the top of the Street of the Knights in Rhodes's medieval town. Built as a Byzantine citadel and made the seat of the Knights Hospitaller after 1309, it was wrecked by an explosion in 1856 and rebuilt by the Italians in 1937–1940. Its rooms hold ancient mosaics from Kos and archaeological exhibitions.

The Kahal Shalom Synagogue, completed in 1577 in La Juderia, the Jewish quarter of the medieval town of Rhodes, is the oldest synagogue building in Greece. Its Sephardi hall has the reading platform in the centre and a floor of black and white pebbles. The former women's prayer rooms hold the Jewish Museum of Rhodes, on the community deported in 1944.

The Archaeological Museum of Rhodes occupies the Hospital of the Knights of Saint John in the medieval town, built from 1440 and completed under Grand Master d'Aubusson (1476–1503). Around its arcaded courtyard it shows finds from Rhodes and the nearby islands, among them the marble Crouching Aphrodite of the 1st century BC and a head of Helios.

The fortifications of Rhodes are the walls, bastions, towers, gates and dry moat that ring the medieval town of Rhodes. The Knights Hospitaller rebuilt the older Byzantine walls from 1309 onwards, and each stretch was defended by one of the Order's national 'tongues', whose names the bastions still carry. The walls are seen from the gates and from the moat below.

Mandraki is the small harbour just north of the medieval town of Rhodes. Two columns topped with bronze deer stand at its entrance, the spot where tradition places the Colossus of Rhodes. Along its eastern mole stand three medieval windmills, with the Fort of Saint Nicholas at the far end, and excursion boats moor along the quay.