Why go
The city is easier to understand when the classical port, vanished Colossus and Hospitaller walls are seen as successive chapters in one place. Its streets and harbour were important long before the Knights made Rhodes their headquarters; the ancient wonder is a historical episode, not a surviving landmark.
The full story
In 408 BC the three Rhodian cities of Lindos, Ialyssos and Kameiros united to establish a new capital at the island's northern end. Ancient accounts associate its regular plan with Hippodamus. Sea trade and shipbuilding helped the city prosper, and its cultural influence extended through schools of learning and sculpture. After the Rhodians resisted Demetrius' siege in 305–304 BC, they commissioned the Colossus of Helios. The statue fell in the earthquake of 226 BC; no standing Colossus survives at the harbour. Rhodes later came under Roman control while remaining a centre of learning. Byzantine rule kept the city tied to maritime commerce, though repeated conflicts changed the island's rulers. In 1309 the Knights Hospitaller took Rhodes and reshaped the city with fortifications and the Palace of the Grand Master. The Ottoman conquest of 1522 opened another long chapter. Around the Old Town, the visitor is therefore looking at a medieval urban fabric laid over a far older port city.