Why go
This history turns separate ruins into a connected story: three settlements shared the island before founding a new capital in 408 BC. Kameiros and Ialyssos offer evidence of early contacts, while Lindos adds the scale of an ancient city. The contrast helps explain why Rhodes was ready to become a maritime power.
The full story
Human settlement on Rhodes reaches back to prehistoric times, though little from the earliest period remains visible. By the eighth century BC, Lindos, Ialyssos and Kameiros had emerged as important Dorian cities. Together with Kos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus, they belonged to the group later called the Dorian Hexapolis, or six cities. Objects found on Rhodes show how widely these communities were connected. Votive gifts at a sanctuary of Athena included Near Eastern ivories and Syrian bronzes. Kameiros yielded carved ivory figurines, while burials at Kameiros and Ialyssos produced distinctive jewellery from the seventh and early sixth centuries BC. Such finds are more useful to a visitor than a simple list of rulers: they show people exchanging materials, styles and ideas across the eastern Mediterranean. In 408 BC the three Rhodian cities united and founded Rhodes city at the northern tip. Its creation shifted the island's political focus without erasing the older settlements.