ANCIENT SITE OF KAMIROS

Archaeological excavations on the Kamiros site were first carried out by a Franco-British team in the 1860s, then resumed by Italian archaeologists during the Fascist occupation of the 1920s. They revealed traces of the earliest human settlement dating back to the ^14th century BC. However, it wasn't until the ^7th and ^6th centuries BC that the city, now a Dorian city, reached its true apogee. It became one of the three great cities of Rhodes, along with Ialyssos and Lindos, and was the first to mint coins on the island, a sign of its power and wealth. Kamiros fell into decline after the earthquakes of 226 BC and 142 BC. Today, the ruins can be visited in a site of touching beauty.

Excavations relaunched by the Italians in 1928 revealed the remains of three complexes, which can still be admired today: the Agora with its ^3rd-century BC temple dedicated to Apollo, the temple of the gods, the temple of the gods, the temple of the gods, the temple of the gods, the temple of the gods and the temple of the godsC. temple dedicated to Apollo, its two sanctuaries and bathing establishments; a dense residential area, made up of successive houses organized along alleys, themselves crossed by a wider central avenue; the acropolis built as a three-level amphitheatre, with a particularly long Doric stoa (204 meters) dating from the ^3rd century B.C. and a temple from the same period, dedicated to Athena. The latter was rebuilt after the earthquake of 226 BC on the foundations of a much older temple, probably dating from the ^7th century BC.