What Is Rhodes Known For?

Rhodes once held one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World at its harbor entrance, a bronze giant tall enough to rival the Statue of Liberty, though it stood for barely half a century before an earthquake brought it down.

Rhodes is known first for the Colossus of Rhodes, a roughly 30 to 33 meter bronze statue of the sun god Helios, built between 292 and 280 BC by the sculptor Charis to celebrate the island's successful defense against a Macedonian siege. The statue collapsed during an earthquake in 226 BC, and while popular legend long held that ships once sailed directly between its legs at the harbor mouth, modern historians consider that image unlikely, and the statue's exact original location remains debated among archaeologists today.

The island is equally known as the stronghold of the Knights of St. John, also called the Knights Hospitaller, a Catholic military order that ruled Rhodes from 1310 to 1522 after relocating from Jerusalem. During that period, the Knights built the Palace of the Grand Master, constructed directly over the foundations of an earlier temple dedicated to Helios, and the Street of the Knights, lined with seven grand inns representing the different national groups, or tongues, that made up the order, remains one of the best preserved medieval streets anywhere in Europe. The Knights held the island through repeated sieges before finally surrendering to Suleiman the Magnificent in 1522 after a six-month siege.

Rhodes's medieval Old Town earned UNESCO World Heritage status in 1988, its walls and architecture layering Greek, Byzantine, Ottoman, and Italian influence across centuries of changing rule, connecting the island's ancient wonder and medieval fortress history to Symi and Kos nearby.