Kos: the home of medicine

  Kos, Greece
Wednesday, April 5, 2006

After the intense mental struggle of a D&M entry its good to get back to the fun and frivolity of going somewhere and exploring, especially when it is a new region and a completely different way of life like my first ventures in the Greek Isles.

I was originally going to write one entry for both Kos and Rhodes, but multiple things to write about coupled with dozens of pretty pictures mean I'll have to split it into two. I hope you don't mind. So this entry I'll cover Kos and the village of Lindos on the island of Rhodes, while in the next I'll have a good look around Rhodes Town - both old and new - which I enjoyed very much and think you will too. Trust me, it's quite an amazing place.

Kos is the third largest island in the Dodecanese group, a bunch of 18 islands in the southern Aegean Sea. It lies only 5km from the Turkish port of Bodrum which I covered in a previous entry, but atmospherically the two differ quite significantly despite their proximity and both being heavily tourism-reliant towns. In a good way of course - Bodrum is tastefully flashy and new whilst Kos Town is relaxed, retaining its old world charm and is positively rural when you get out of town.



As a player in Grecian history, Kos punched well above its weight class however. Even as early as 1,500BC it was so well populated that it managed to send 30 ships to the Trojan War. Egyptian Pharaoh Ptolemy II was born here benefiting Kos' trading enormously during that dynasty's reign. However its most famous export was Hippocrates - the 'Father of Medicine' - who was born and lived on the island between 460 and 377BC.

A body of 80 works known as the Hippocratic Corpus made their way into Egypt's Alexandrian Library, attributed to him but never actually proven that they were his writings. Anyway, the corpus taught that diseases have natural causes, which means they can be studied and possibly cured by a well trained doctor who has access to case notes and experience - not by relying on witchcraft or magic which were the main techniques of the time.



The Asklepion is the medical academy that was built in the hills above Kos Town after Hippocrates' death and which drew medical students from across the region for hundreds of years after his time. There are significant remains it seems, but naturally I walked the 4km to get there on the only day of the week that it wasn't open (Monday), so you will have to appreciate it as I did - from the front gate!

Some may know also that modern medicine is based on Hippocratic principles and that physicians swear to the observe the ethics of the Hippocratic Oath to this very day. Now that's a contribution to humanity if ever I've heard one. Nice one Kos!



On to the island of Rhodes and a dazzling little village 47km down the southern coast from Rhodes Town called Lindos. It is a very pleasant bus ride down past the beaches, especially as you get closer to Lindos itself.



The area has been inhabited since around 2,000BC but it wasn't until the Dorians moved in (around 1,200BC) that this town became an Aegean trading centre because of its easily defended hill and the handy safe harbour below. Maybe they were keen on the beach too but that wasn't mentioned in the histories.

What resulted was the Acropolis of Lindos, perched on the 117m high hill, which seems to be a major tourist attraction of the region considering maybe fifty tourist buses dumped thousands of local teenagers here at exactly the time I arrived. Fantastic. I couldn't move anywhere but in the end there really isn't much to see in the bastion anyway. With the cranes and shinily reconstructed columns and walls all over the site I think it lost the last of its old world charm a while ago. Oh well.



Lindos Town is what you come to see these days - the cute, milk-white 17th century ville below the Acropolis that is packed with character and charm once you get off the main tourist lanes leading through the centre of town. Head to the lower sections toward the beach - either turn will do. The chapels are particularly endearing, as are the coarse black and white mosaics called hohlakia that pave the laneways and gated courtyards.

I get a feeling I'll be seeing quite a bit more like this, but as long as the teenagers are elsewhere that is mighty fine by me!

Next entry -> Rhodos Town

Just so you know...

If you were wondering, 'Dodecanese' refers to 12 of the 18 islands in the group that were given special privileges after submitting to the Ottoman Turks back in the 15th century. Old names die hard...

Thanks to Lonely Planet for many of the facts and figures in this entry.