ΟΜΟΣΠΟΝΔΙΑ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΝΗΣΟΥ ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΔΙΑΜΕΡΙΣΜΑΤΩΝ

ΟΜΟΣΠΟΝΔΙΑ ΔΩΔΕΚΑΝΗΣΟΥ ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΔΙΑΜΕΡΙΣΜΑΤΩΝ ΦΑΛΗΡΑΚΙ, 85100 ΡΟΔΟΣ Tel: 22410-87407 Fax: 22410-87447 Web Site: http://www.blueislands.gr   Κατηγορία:

 

Welcome

    The island of Rhodes is shaped like a spearhead, 79.7 km (49.5 mi) long and 38 km (24 mi) wide, with a total area of approximately 1,400 square kilometres (541 sq mi) and a coastline of approximately 220 km (137 mi). The city of Rhodes is located at the far northern end of the island, including the site of the ancient and modem commercial harbour. The main air gateway (Diagoras International Airport, IATA code: RHO) is located 14 km (9 mi) to the south west of the city in Paradisi. The road network radiatesfrom the city along the east and west coasts.

 

    In terms of flora and fauna, Rhodes is closer to Asia Minor than to the rest of Greece. The interior of the country is mountainous, sparsely inhabited and covered with forests of pine (Pinus brutia) and cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). The island is home to Rhodian deer. In Petaludes Valley, known in English as the Valley of the Butterflies, large numbers of tiger moths gather in the summer. Mount Attavyros, at 1,216 metres (3,990 ft), is the island's highest point of elevation. While the shores are stony, the island has arable strips of land where citrus fruit, winegrapes, vegetables, olives and othercrops aregrown.

 

    Outside of the city of Rhodes, the island is dotted with small villages and beach resorts, among them Faliraki, Kalithies, Koskinou, Psinthos, Lindos, Kremasti, Haraki, Pefkos, Archangelos, Afantou, Kiotari, Embona (Attavyros), Paradisi, and Trianta (Ialysos). Tourism is the island's primary source of income.

 

    Faliraki is the primary seaside resortvillage on the Greek island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese. It is situated on Faliraki Bay, on the northeastern coast, about 14 km south of the town of Rhodes and 10 km southeast of the airport. It is part of the municipality Kallithea.

 

    One of the oldest and largest resort areas of Greece, Faliraki is known for its sandy beach and numerous watersport offerings, as well as numerous bars and nightclubs. As such, it is favored for holidays by younger visitors, particularly British youth.

 

History

Ancient times

    The island was inhabited in the Neolithic period, although little remains of this culture. In the 16th century BC the Minoans came to Rhodes, and later Greek mythology recalled a Rhodian race they called the Telchines, and associated Rhodes with Danaus; it was sometimes nicknamed Telchinis. In the 15th century the Achaeans invaded. It was, however, in the 11th century that the island started to flourish, with the coming of the Dorians. It was the Dorians who later built the three important cities of Lindos, Ialyssos and Kameiros, which together with Kos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus (on the mainland) made up the so-called Dorian Hexapolis.

 

    In Pindar's ode, the island was said to be bom of the union of Helios the sun god and the nymph Rhode, and the cities were named for their three sons. The rhoda is a pink hibiscus native to the island. Diodorus Siculus added that Actis, one of the sons of Helios and Rhode travelled to Egypt where he built the city of Heliopolis and he taught the Egyptians the science of astrology.

 

    Invasions by the Persians eventually overran the island, but after their defeat by the forces from Athens in 478 BC, the cities joined the Athenian League. When the Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 BC, Rhodes remained largely neutral, although it remained a member of the League. The war lasted until 404 BC, but by this time Rhodes had withdrawn entirely from the conflict and had decided to go her own way.

 

    In 408 BC the cities united to form one territory, and built a new capital on the northern end of the island, the city of Rhodes: its regular plan was superintended by the Athenian architect Hippodamus. However the Peloponnesian War had so weakened the entire Greek culture that it lay open to invasion. In 357 BC the island was conquered by the king Mausolus of Caria, then fell to the Persians 340BC. But their rule was also short and to the great relief of its citizens, Rhodes became a part of the growing empire of Alexander III of Macedon in 332 BC after he defeated the Persians.

 

    Following the death of Alexander his generals vied for control of the kingdom. Three of them, Ptolemy, Seleucus, and Antigonus, succeeded in dividing the kingdom among themselves. Rhodes formed strong commercial and cultural ties with the Ptolemies in Alexandria, and together they formed the Rhodo-Egyptian alliance which controlled trade throughout the Aegean in the 3rd century BC. The city developed into a maritime, commercial and cultural centre and its coins were in circulation almost everywhere in the Mediterranean. Its famous schools of philosophy and science and literature and rhetoric, shared masters with Alexandria: the Athenian rhetorician Aeschines who formed a school at Rhodes; Apollonius of Rhodes; the astronomers Hipparchus and Geminus, the rhetorician Dionysios Trax. Its school of sculptors developed a rich, dramatic style that can be characterized as "Hellenistic Baroque".

 

    In 305 BC, Antigonus had his son, Demetrius, besiege Rhodes in an attempt to break its alliance with Egypt. Demetrius created huge siege engines including a180 ft (55 m) battering ram and a siege tower named Helepolis that weighed360,000 pounds (163,293 kg). Despite this engagement, in 304 BC, after only one year he relented and signed a peace agreement, leaving behind a huge store of military equipment. The Rhodians sold the equipment and used the money to erect a statue of their sun god, Helios, the statue now known as Colossus of Rhodes.

 

    In 164 BC, Rhodes signed a treaty with Rome, and became a major schooling center for Roman noble families, and was especially noted for its teachers of rhetoric, such as Hermagoras and the author of the Rhetorica ad Herennium. At first the state was an important ally of Rome and enjoyed numerous privileges, but these were later lost in various machinations of Roman politics. Cassius eventually invaded the island and sacked the city.

 

    In the 1st century AD, the Emperor Tiberius spent a brief term of exile on Rhodes, and Saint Paul brought Christianity to the island. Rhodes reached her zenith in the third century, and was then by common consent the most civilized and beautiful city in Hellas. In 395, the long Byzantine Empire period began for Rhodes, when the Roman Empire was split and the eastern half gradually became a Greek empire. Although part of Byzantium for the next thousand years, Rhodes was nevertheless repeatedly attacked by various forces. It was first occupied by Muslim forces of Muawiyah I in 672. Much later, Rhodes was retrieved for the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I Comnenus during the First Crusade.

 

Medieval period

    In 1309 the Byzantine era came to an end when the island was subjugated by forces of the Knights Hospitaller. Under the rule of the newly named "Knights of Rhodes", the city was rebuilt into a model of the European medieval ideal. Many of the city's famous monuments, including the Palace of the Grand Master, were built during this period.

 

    The strong walls which the Knights had built withstood the attacks of the Sultan of Egypt in 1444, and of Mehmed II in 1480. Ultimately, however, Rhodes fell to the large army of Suleiman the Magnificent in December 1522. The few remaining Knights were permitted to retire to the Kingdom of Sicily. The Knights would later move their base of operations to Malta. The island was thereafter a possession of the Ottoman Empire for nearly four centuries. The Rhodes blood libel in February1840 was one of many false accusations against the Jews of Europe, in which the Jews of Rhodes were accused of ritually murdering a Christian boy.

 

Modern history

    In 1912, Rhodes was seized from the Turks by the Italians, and in 1948, together with the other islands of the Dodecanese, was united with Greece. It thus bypassed many of the events associated with the "exchange of the minorities" between Greece and Turkey. In 1949, Israel signed an armistice agreement with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria on the island of Rhodes.

 

Archaeology

In ancient times, Rhodes was home to one of the Seven Wonders of the World -the Colossus of Rhodes. This giant bronze statue once stood in the harbour. It was completed in 280 BC but was destroyed in an earthquake in 224 BC. No trace of the statue remains today.

 

    Historical sites on the island of Rhodes include the Acropolis of Lindos, the Acropolis of Rhodes, the Temple of Apollo, ancient Ialysos, ancient Kamiros, the Governor's Palace, Rhodes Old Town (walled medieval city), the Palace of the Grand Masters, Kahal Shalom Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter, the Archaeological Museum, the ruins of the castle of Monolithos, the castle of Kritinia and St.Catherine Hospice.

 

Politics 

    Rhodes is the capital of the Dodecanese Prefecture and the most populated island of the South Aegean Region. The local association of municipalities and communities of the Dodecanese, TEDKD, is responsible for joining efforts and actions for the whole island as well as prefecture. Talks in 2007 suggested that the incorporation of the 10 municipalities of the island into one or two metropolitan municipalities in order to achieve flexible administration with profitable outcome for the whole island.

 

    The island´s  10 municipalities are: Afantou, Archangelos, Attavyros, Ialysos, Kallithea, Kameiros, Lindos, Petaloudes, Rhodes, South Rhodes.

 

    Faliraki is situated in the municipality of Kallithea.It lies on the northeastern portion of the island, just south of the City of Rhodes. The population 10,251 (2001 census) and the land area is 109.750 km². The seat of the municipality is in the village of Kalythies.

 

 

ΤΟΥΡΙΣΜΟΣ » ΞΕΝΟΔΟΧΕΙΑ

ΣΥΛΛΟΓΟΣ ΕΝΟΙΚΙΑΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ ΔΩΜΑΤΙΩΝ / The Rhodes Association of Family-Run Studios & Apartments
id: 63886