The island of Rhodes is situated just off the coast of Turkey, in the warm Mediterranean Sea. On the island’s northern point, you’ll find Rhodes, the capital.
The Colossus of Rhodes was considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This giant bronze statue was documented as once standing at the harbour. It was completed in 280 BC and destroyed in an earthquake in 224 BC. No trace of the statue remains today.
However, this beautiful Unesco site is one of the world’s oldest medieval cities that is still lived in today.
The entire city is surrounded by solid walls and has only a few points from which you can enter the old town.
The incredible vaulted ceilings, mosaic floors, cobbled streets and sense of undisturbed history are mesmerising.
Within the city’s walls, tourists who provide the much-needed island economy find great restaurants, artists and street traders amongst the streets with no names. It’s easy to get lost here!
We visited the Kahal Shalom Synagogue.. this is what is said in Wikipedia about it.
There has been a Jewish presence in Rhodes for 2,300 years. They were, at times, persecuted by Romans, the Knights Hospitaller, and other rulers of the islands. During Ottoman rule, however, the Jews of Rhodes prospered, and many expelled Sephardim settled there, particularly in the city of Rhodes, where they built many synagogues (there were six, including Kahal Shalom, in La Juderia, at one time). The Kahal Shalom Synagogue was constructed in 1577 (5338 in the Hebrew calendar), and has been in use ever since. The synagogue and its worshipers prospered under Ottoman rule into the twentieth century. However, the Kingdom of Italy took over the Dodecanese Islands in 1912, and large numbers of the Jews of Rhodes had begun to emigrate during the 1930s, as they felt menaced by the Fascist Italian regime. When the Italian Fascist government fell, the Island came under direct German control in 1943, and more than 1,550 of the remaining 1,700 Jews were deported and met their deaths in concentration camps, largely putting an end to the use of Kahal Shalom. Kahal Shalom was the only of the four synagogues in La Juderia at the time to survive the bombing during the Second World War. Today, Kahal Shalom is only used for services during the summer, when there is an influx of Jewish tourists and Rhodeslis (Jews hailing from Rhodes) as there are only 35 Jews on the island today, and as the headquarters for the Jewish Museum of Rhodes.
I liked Rhodes for a break, and I think you may enjoy it too.
