The island of Rhodes (Rodos) is the largest and most historically important island in the Dodecanese (literally “twelve islands”), a group of 12 large and 150 smaller Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. They have a rich history, and Byzantine churches and medieval castles remain even in the smallest inhabited islands. Rhodes is located at the crossroads of two major sea routes of the Mediterranean between the Aegean Sea and the coast of the Middle East, as well as Cyprus and Egypt. The meeting point of three continents, it has known many civilizations.

Throughout its long history the different people who settled on Rhodes left their mark in all aspects of the island's culture: art, language, architecture. Its strategic position brought to the island great wealth and made the city of Rhodes one of the leading cities of the ancient Greek world. The Medieval City, one of the largest in Europe and a World Heritage City since 1988, is the result of different architectures belonging to various historic eras, predominantly those of the Knights of St. John.

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