Rhodes, a City of Paul

Acts 21:1 tells us the apostle Paul left Ephesus, went to the island of Cos, and then went to Rhodes and on to Patara (on modern Turkey). We don’t know how long Paul was in Rhodes but it doesn’t sound long; we also don’t know where he landed on Rhodes, though Lindos has claimed him for their own — and who wouldn’t want to claim Paul for such a gorgeous beach. But Lindos is the least likely and the two most likely places are Rhodes Town on the top of the island. Another possibility, due to its size and significance on the island, is Kameiros, just down the coast (SW) from Rhodes.

One day was very windy and anyone (like Paul) on that water was in jeopardy.

Kris and I couldn’t take a trip like this — a study vacation I call it — and not share a few photos of Rhodes. First we stayed at Avalon just off the historic Street of the Knights and in the shadow of the famous Palace of the Grant Masters, a beautiful museum today. Avalon is a family run hotel and we are grateful to the whole family — Chrysoula, Despina, Demetrios and Themis for their warm hospitality. We had access to a patio on which I could read and where we could find warm sunshine daily.

I begin this sketch of our time in Rhodes with the beautiful harbor and its fortress. Kris and I took a long morning walk along the harbor and out to the western tip of the island, and barely visible in the background is the mountainous coast of Turkey, which on most every day we could see.

Here is the courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Masters, with a number of nice statues — about which Dio Chrysostom wrote a stinging rebuke to the Rhodians. There is a wonderful museum here of ancient Greek artefacts as well as a walking tour through a restored (and enhanced) palace with some extraordinary floor mosaics (mostly from Cos).

The bouganvillea of Rhodes were in full bloom. This was in front of a home we saw on our walk home from dinner at one of our favorite restaurants (Tamam). Our three favorites were Niraeus, Meltemi, and Tamam.

Here is the inside of the synagogue of Rhodes. A thriving community was annihilated by Hitler in WW2.

Any city named Theologian — after the apostle John — is our kind of place, so we visited it … took a good one minute to drive through “Theologian.” But we found a small chapel in his memory, filled with beautiful icons, and then we also found the remains — uncared for sadly — of a historic pagan temple.

Here is Kameiros from the top of the city at the Temple of Athena looking down and mostly north: