Kos is a small island located just 5 kilometers from the Bodrum Peninsula on mainland Turkey. Kos was originally settled by the Carian people, who lived in the southeast corner of what is present day Turkey (including Bodrum). The people of Kos played a role in the War of Troy, the Greek mythological story now believed to be about a real battle fought between the Greeks and Troy, which was located in what is now Turkey.

In the 11th century BC, the island was invaded by Dorian Greeks. The Dorians who settled on Kos worshipped the gods of medicine and healing and cleanliness. In the 6th century BC, Kos fell to the Persians, who had conquered Asia Minor. In 479 BC, Kos rebelled from the Persians and joined in the on going Greco-Persian wars (Thermopylae was one of many battles within the Greco-Persian wars, which spanned from 499 BC to 448 BC). The Greeks won the war against the Persians. In 366 BC, the city of Kos was built according to the principals of the radical new concept of urban planning that was introduced by the Greek Hippodamus. Kos city was made the new capital and democracy was established.

From the time of the Dorians, Kos was famous for its medical care. A medical school was established on Kos that became famous, though all our history sources give conflicting dates of establishment. The father of modern medical science, Hippocrates, was born and lived on the island. Hippocrates is famous for taking all religion and superstition out of medicine. He believed sickness had natural causes and could therefore be studied and cured according to the workings of nature. He scientifically classified all data available about diseases and the human body.

After the death of Alexander the Great, the Dodecanese Islands were taken by Ptolemy, along with Egypt. Kos became a military outpost for Egypt and prospered under Egyptian rule. Rome eventually gained control of Egypt and Greece, and Eastern Rome ultimately evolved into the Byzantine Empire. Kos is part of the territory that the Venetians wrested from the Byzantines in 1204, but in 1315 AD lost it to the Knights Hospitaliers, a military/religious order that was part of the Crusades in Jerusalem. The Knights had recently been kicked out of Jerusalem by the Muslims and needed a new base of operation from which to continue to fight the Muslims. They picked Rhodes as their base, and also took some of the islands near Rhodes, including Kos, as well as the Bodrum Peninsula. With the blessing from the Catholic Church, The Knights ruled their territory as if it were an independent state.

The Knights lost the island to the Ottoman Turks in 1523. In 1911, the Italians attacked the Turks in an effort to gain control of Libya, then a Turkish province. In 1912, the Italians won Libya and also somehow got control of the Dodecanese Islands, as well. During WWII, the Nazis took control of the island. In 1947, the Dodecanese Islands officially became a part of modern day Greece.

Now that we were all rested up, we were ready to do some serious sightseeing around Kos. Needless to say, with so much history, there are lots of sites to see on the island. Our first stop was the Roman Odium on the southwest side of town, not far from the marina. The odium was constructed in the 2nd century AD. It looked like a standard amphitheater to us, and quite small compared to the ones in Athens. In addition to music concerts, the senate met here for its public sessions.

On the way to the Odium we had passed a site under active excavation that wasn’t on the map. The signs were in Greek only, so we don’t know what it was. There is a big staff and snake symbol of medicine next to the Greek sign, so we suspect it may be an ancient hospital.

After the Odium we went to the “baptistery” next door, which turned out to be a tall, thin Catholic church.

Across the street from the Odium is the Western Excavation Site. There were several foundations around the site, most of which appeared to be nothing more than a pile of rubble. There weren’t any signs around saying what the ruins once were or when they were built, and with most of the ruins you really need those signs to spark your interest and imagination.

The more intact remains were towards the back of the site. There was one building that looked to be relatively undamaged that, according to Lonely Planet, is a nymphaeum, or latrines. You couldn’t go in it the interior picture was taken by sticking the lens of the camera up to the iron bars on the entrance.

Another building consisted of a few columns, which Lonely Planet said was once a Hellenistic era gymnasium.

We were most fascinated by a multi-storied, crumbling shell of a building that we think was probably once an imposing building. The floor of the building has mosaics, a sign of wealth. We spent a good deal of time poking through all the various nooks and crannies of it. We have no clue what kind of building it was. It is significantly bigger than it looks in this photo, since you can’t see the lower level in the picture.

After we left the site, we realized that Lonely Planet had mentioned there were some remarkable mosaics that we missed in the far corner of the site. Oh well.

We headed a few blocks north to the”¦ To be continued”¦