Most of us associate the world of “Acropolis” with Acropolis in Athens. But Acropolis in Greek means the “fortress” and in ancient Greece were a lot of Acropolises.
One of the survived Acropolises of ancient Greece is a Lindos Acropolis, which is located at the top of rock near the Lindos village on the Rhodos island.
When you visit the Lindos you will notice how the felicitous the location of Lindos Acropolis. It’s unapproachable. You can lift to the Acropolis only by one road which is running along the well defended Acropolis walls.
Lindos Acropolis it’s not only a fortress. It was also a sacral place and today at the top of the Acropolis you can see the vestiges of ancient temple dedicated to the Athens. This temple, according to the legends, has been built in the pre-historic times by Danaus who came to the island trying to escape from outrage of Hera. Of course current ruins are belong to the later times. They are dated by the 3 century BC.
First ancient monument which you will see when climb to the Lindos Acropolis will be the image of ancient trireme carved on the rock. This is unique monument, which has been completed in 280 BC to commemorate naval victory of Lindos fleet.
As the fortress Lindos Acropolis was not only used by the ancient Greeks. Further owners of the island used it as the fortress as well. And today Lindos Acropolis is a combination of fortifications of different epochs. Most of the fortifications, which you can see today at Acropolis, belong to the Knight’s period of the history of Rhodes.
They were built in the middle of the 14 century. And as you can see knights actively used the ancient building as the source for their fortifications.
Big tanks for the water storage (the lack of the water could cause a big problems for the fortress defenders) were built in the Byzantium times.
I don’t know the history of the Lindos Acropolis when island was under the Turkish control. Probably castle stood abandoned.
When Rhodos has been a part of the Italy in the first part of the 20 century, Italian architects partly restored ancient monuments of the Lindos Acropolis. For example the Propylea, a big open-air staircase, which leads to the ruins of the Temple of the Athens.
And I want to mention the magnificent views of the Rhodos island below of Lindos Acropolis. I’m sure that you will enjoy it .
