19 Best Sights in Rhodes Town, Rhodes and the Dodecanese

This grand building, with its fairy-tale towers, crenellated ramparts, and more than 150 rooms, crowns the top of the Street of Knights and is the place to begin any tour of Rhodes. Unscathed during the Turkish siege of 1522, the palace was partly destroyed in 1856 by an explosion of ammunition stored nearby in the cellars of the Church of St. John. The present structure—a Mussolini-era Italian reconstruction of the 1930s—is said to have remained fairly close to the original in its exterior, but inside was rebuilt with all the restraint of your typical Fascist dictatorship. The building was, after all, reimagined as a holiday abode for King Vittorio Emmanuele III of Italy, and later Il Duce himself (Mussolini), whose name is still engraved at the entrance. Today the palace's collection of antiques and antiquities includes Hellenistic and Roman mosaic floors from Italian excavations in Kos, and in the permanent exhibition downstairs are extensive displays, maps, and plans showing the layout of the city that will help you get oriented before wandering through the labyrinthine Old Town.

This historic cobblestone lane, known in Greek as Ippoton, runs east from the Palace of the Grand Master to the harbor, and was once part of a longer path that wound its way to the Acropolis. During its medieval heyday it became a residential quarter. It is bordered on both sides by the seven Inns of the Tongues, auberges where visiting Knights of the Order of St. John were domiciled according to their spoken language. These were heavily renovated during the 1930s, under Italian occupation, and today mostly hold consulates and government institutions. They are nevertheless wonderfully atmospheric to wander. The most elaborate example is the Inn of France, whose ornately carved facade bears heraldic patterns, fleur de lis, and an inscription that dates the building to 1492 and its commission by Emery d'Ambroise.

As you travel south along the east coast, a strange sight meets you: an assemblage of buildings that look as if they have been transplanted from Morocco. In fact, this spectacular mosaic-tile bath complex was built in 1929 by the Italians. As far back as the early 2nd century BC, area mineral springs were prized; the great physician Hippocrates of Kos extolled these springs for alleviating liver, kidney, and rheumatic ailments. Though the baths are no longer in use, the ornate rotunda has been restored (art exhibitions are often on view), as have peristyles and pergolas, and you can wander through the beautifully landscaped grounds—note the pebble mosaics, an ancient folk tradition come alive again, with mosaics of fish, deer, and other images—and have a drink or snack in the attractive café. A pretty beach rings a nearby cove.

One of the great medieval monuments in the Mediterranean, the walls of Rhodes are wonderfully restored and illustrate the engineering capabilities as well as the financial and human resources available to the Knights of St. John. For 200 years the knights strengthened the walls by thickening them, up to 40 feet in places, and curving them so as to deflect cannonballs. The moat between the inner and outer walls never contained water; it was a device to prevent invaders from constructing siege towers. You can get a sense of the enclosed city's massive scale by walking for free inside the moat; entrances can be found at the gates of St. Athanasius and Ambroise.

Part of the walkway that runs the 4 km (2½ miles) along the top of the walls is accessible through the Palace of the Grand Master ticket office; free tours are run daily between noon and 3 pm.

The Hospital of the Knights (now the island's archaeological museum) was completed in 1489 and surrounds a Byzantine courtyard, off which are the refectory and wards where the wealthy institution once administered to the knights and townspeople. These wonderful surroundings are enhanced with findings from Rhodes's three ancient cities (Ialysos, Kameiros, and Lindos) and the nearby islands, including a magnificent collection of ceramic amphoras and oenochoe (wine jugs), which inevitably fell into the possession of the islands' wealthy merchants. Successive rooms elegantly show the evolution of Attic pottery, from early geometric deigns to the red-on-black figures of the 5th century BC. Among its collection are also two well-known representations of Aphrodite: the Aphrodite of Rhodes, who, while bathing, pushes aside her hair as if she's listening; and a standing figure, known as Aphrodite Thalassia, or "of the sea," as she was discovered in the water off the northern city beach. There are also two 6th-century BC kouros (statues of idealized male youth) that were found in the nearby ancient city of Kameiros, and, in a beautiful 5th-century BC funerary stela, a young woman named Crito, hair cut short in mourning, gives a farewell embrace to her mother, Timarista, who is already moving outside the frame, as she leaves the world.

Housed in a stone-vaulted warehouse of the Knights, this small room exhibits finely made ceramics, wooden tools and utensils, and costumes and textiles from the various regions of the Dodecanese. There's little to explain what you're seeing, but the attendant can offer some information.

Though the beach is pebbly rather than sandy, a handy location right at the edge of Old Town makes this seaside strip immensely popular, and it's lined with chairs and umbrellas. An offshore diving platform is a huge hit with kids and what seems to be most of the teenage population of Rhodes. What you won't find here is solitude, and what semblance of peace and quiet you might find will likely be interrupted by an endless stream of hawkers selling everything from trinkets to cold drinks. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; toilets; showers; water sports. Best for: swimming; walking.

The town's harborside cathedral is a 1920s Italian-built replica of the Knights' Church of St. John in the Old Town, which was destroyed in an accidental gunpowder explosion in the mid-1800s after the Turks began using its basement as a storage facility. The outside is drably slavish to the idea of the Gothic original, but the church interior is rather magnificent, illuminated by the Byzantine-style frescoes of the great modern Greek painter Fotis Kontoglou.

Faliraki's reputation is better these days, after authorities cracked down 20 years ago on the bars that once made this the hedonistic party capital of Greece. It remains the most popular beach on Rhodes, and will be your idea of paradise or hell, depending on what you think of crowded sands backed by fun parks, supermarkets, all-inclusive resorts, and fast-food joints. Stretches of the 5 km (3 miles) of fine sand are a little less cramped than others, such as the southern end, which is officially designated as a naturist beach. Beyond its southern tip lies the beautiful Anthony Quinn Bay, named after the Mexican-American actor who loved it so much while filming The Guns of Navarone in 1960 that he bought the land. Years later the Greek government reclaimed it and the legal battle that ensued continued even after the actor's death. Its tiny shore fills up fast but the emerald waters here are the best for snorkeling on the island. Buses run between Rhodes Town and Faliraki throughout the day and late into the evening. Amenities: food and drink; lifeguards; parking (free); showers; toilets; water sports. Best for: nudists; partiers; swimming; walking.

This circular fortress, built by the Knights of St. John in the 15th century, guards the entrance to Mandraki Harbor, near a row of picturesque but disused windmills.

Icons and frescoes from religious buildings throughout Rhodes Town (most of them long since destroyed) are displayed within this 11th-century church. The building was transformed into a mosque under Turkish rule, but later stripped of all remnants of this period under Italian administration as part of a wider attempt to revive the Hospitaler character of the city. Closes at 3:30 pm.

This 19th-century neo-Gothic structure stands on the site of the 14th-century Church of St. John, patron of the Knights of St. John and the final resting place of many members of the order. Used as an ammunition storehouse during Turkish occupation, the church was reduced to rubble in an explosion sparked by lightning in 1856.

What was once the main harbor, in use since the 5th century BC, adjoins the commercial harbor on the east side of Old Town and is home to the city's municipal buildings and an open-air bazaar. Inter-island catamarans sail from here now, but it was once said to be the site of one of the greatest acheivements of antiquity. Today, two bronze deer statues mark the spot where legend says the city's famous Colossus, a huge bronze statue of the sun god, Helios, once straddled the Mandraki Harbor entrance. Completed by the sculptor Chares of Lindos in the late 3rd century BC, the 110-foot-high figure only stood for around 50 years. In 227 BC, an earthquake razed the city and toppled the Colossus. After the calamity, the Delphic oracle advised the Rhodians to let the great Colossus remain where it had fallen. So there it lay for some eight centuries, until AD 654 when it was sold as scrap metal and carted off to Syria, allegedly by a caravan of 900 camels.

Soaring vaults are all that remains of what was once a magnificent Gothic church, completed by the Knights of St. John in 1456. The knights believed that Mary, the mother of Jesus, provided them and Rhodes special protection against the ever-present threat of a Muslim invasion; now kids play among the scattered ruins and musical events are sometimes held here.

About 2 km (1 mile) to the west of Rhodes's town center, atop Mt. Smith, are the freely accessible ruins of the Acropolis of Rhodes, a fine example of the stately sanctuaries that the ancient Greeks built atop many of their cities. The complex includes a theater that the Italians restored in the early 20th century, a stadium, three restored columns of the Temple of Apollo Pythios, the scrappy remains of the Temple of Athena Polias, a Nymphaia, and an Odeon. For a dramatic view, make your way to the westernmost edge of the summit, which drops via a sharp and almost inaccessible cliff to the shore below, now lined with enormous hotels.

Also known as the Muslim Library, or Hafiz Ahmed Agha Library, this institution holds a rare collection of Turkish, Persian, and Arab manuscripts, including many rare Korans. Founded in 1793, this remains a striking reminder of the Ottoman presence. The collection and the adjacent Mosque of Süleyman are still used by those members of Rhodes's Turkish community who stayed here after the 1923 population exchange, a mass repatriation of Greek and Turkish migrants.