Lindos and the Acropolis

Lindos lies on the east coast of the island at a distance of 50 km from the capital of Rhodes. Lindos, like the old Town of Rhodes, is one of the monuments that has been declared subject preservation and that has been able to retain its traditional color. Daily, foreigners and Greeks take excursions to admire this village and its acropolis and swim at its marvelous beaches.

According to Homer, Lindos was built by the Dorians at the same time as Kameiros and Ialyssos in the 12th century B.C. Rhodes sent nine ships to the Trojan War and most probably they all came from Lindos. This fact shows that during that period Lindos was the most powerful town in Rhodes. The development of the town was due to its naval power. Its two harbors as well as it impregnable acropolis were unique on Rhodes.

There is information that Lindos already had colonies by the 7th century and that it monopolized a large part of trade and shipping in the Mediterranean. The Lindians were the first to draw up a naval code of justice, later known as the Rhodian Naval Code. This was to become the basis of Roman naval justice and is even to be found at core of modern maritime law. The Lindians were also great sculptors. Their bronze statuses are famed for their incomparable craft. The famous Colossus of Rhodes was a bronze statue by the Lindian artist Chares.

The town reached the height of its power in the 6th century B.C. particularly during the reign of Cleobulos who ruled for more than 40 years. Cleobulos is regarded as one of the Seven Sages of antiquity, primarily because he was the first to support the funding of public works by fund-raising drives among the citizens. The money from these drives was used to built the Temple of Athena in 550 B.C.

The ancient Acropolis 410 feet (160m) above Lindos. On the approach to the top you will come to the CASTLE, a 13th century fortress that is at the entrance of the site. To the left are thirteen remaining columns of the STOA which was constructed around 200 B.C. and has been restored. The TEMPLE of the LINDIAN ATHENA was once a significant religious site originally dating back to 100 BC. The remnants seen today were built by the tyrant Cleobulos in the 6th-century BC and are remarkably well intact, with colonnades flanking both sides of the temple.

Excavations on this site in the early 1900’s brought to the surface a variety of items including 5000 years old tools and an inscribed plague dating back to 99 BC that documented visitors to the temple: HERCULES, HELEN OF TROY and ALEXANDER THE GREAT to name a few.