Acropolis of Lindos: Athena's Clifftop Sanctuary on Rhodes

The Story of the Acropolis of Lindos

On the east coast of Rhodes, a great rock rises straight from the sea, its cliffs dropping into the turquoise water of two sheltered bays. At its foot lies the whitewashed village of Lindos, and on its summit stands one of the most dramatic sanctuaries in Greece, dedicated to Athena Lindia. For centuries before the city of Rhodes was founded, Lindos was one of the three great cities of the island, and its sanctuary was famous throughout the Greek world.

Legends traced the sanctuary back to the age of heroes. According to one tradition, it was founded by Danaus, who stopped at Lindos with his daughters while fleeing from Egypt and set up a statue of Athena. In the 6th century BC, Lindos was ruled by Cleobulus, counted among the Seven Sages of ancient Greece, whose sayings were admired for their wisdom. He is said to have rebuilt the temple of Athena on the summit.

The temple visible today was built in the 4th century BC, after an earlier one burned down in 392 BC. It is a small Doric temple with 4 columns at the front and back, set at the very edge of the cliff, facing out to sea. In the Hellenistic period, when Rhodes was a rich and powerful naval state, the approach to the temple was transformed with a grand stairway, a monumental gateway and a long colonnaded stoa, creating one of the most impressive entrances of any Greek sanctuary.

The sanctuary was filled with famous offerings. In 1904 archaeologists found an inscription known as the Lindian Chronicle, carved in 99 BC, which lists dedications said to have been made to Athena over the centuries, from legendary heroes such as Heracles and Menelaus to historical rulers such as the Egyptian pharaoh Amasis and Alexander the Great. Many of these gifts had already been lost by then, and the chronicle was written partly to preserve their memory.

At the foot of the stairway, carved directly into the rock, is a relief of the stern of a Rhodian warship, made around 180 BC. It is attributed to the sculptor Pythokritos and once supported a statue of a priest honored for his services. The ship is a reminder of the naval power on which the wealth of Rhodes was built.

The rock continued to be fortified long after the ancient gods were forgotten. In the Byzantine era a church was built on the acropolis, and in the 14th century the Knights of Saint John, who ruled Rhodes, strengthened the walls and built a castle around the ancient sanctuary. Danish archaeologists excavated the site between 1902 and 1905, and Italian restorers later reconstructed parts of the temple and stoa during the Italian rule of the Dodecanese.

Today the climb up to the Acropolis of Lindos is part of the adventure. A path winds up through the village and the rock, with sweeping views over the bays below, including the small Saint Paul's Bay, where tradition says the apostle landed. At the top, pass through the castle gate, see the ship relief, climb the great stairway and stand beside Athena's temple on the edge of the cliff. Go early in the morning or late in the day to avoid the heat and the crowds.