Kos Town

After two nights we escaped from our all-inclusive experience... again by taxi thanks to an incorrect bus schedule. An hour later we arrived in downtown Kos Town and made our way on foot to our hotel. It was a breath of fresh air to deal with the friendly staff at the small family owned Imperial Hotel. After pulling together my stomach, which was still upset from the resort food, we headed out to see some archeology.





Our first stop was the Neratzia Castle. Built by the Knight Hospitaller of crusader fame, this 14th century castle sits on a pier in Kos harbor and is a great place to watch the boat come in and out. The knights, like so many other ancient groups, pirated columns from ancient ruins and used them to reinforce the ceiling of the castle gate.























Much of the stone the makes up the castle walls was also recycled from ruins and some of the ancient carvings are still visable, though many are flipped upside-down and sideways. Apparently the knight were more worried about invading Turks than orienting the ancient Greek character correctly. Go figure.



































Right next door to the castle is the famed Tree of Hippocrates. Though researchers have proven that the tree is not old enough to have been alive in the time of Hippocrates, the local continue to swear that the medicine man himself sat underneath it. It is like if Mainers discovered L.L. Bean was a vegetarian. I'm pretty sure we would still maintain that he was an expert hunter. Hey, you've got to make a living somehow. Oh, also Paul (as in the apostle who did all that traveling and letter writing) taught at the tree. Acts 21:2. Also not quite possible for a tree that is estimated to be about 500 years old.






















You'll notice on the picture that the white marble fountain surrounding the tree has not Greek, but Arabic characters. Eleftherias square, which encircles the tree, is also home to the Defterdar Mosque. Kos is 2.5 miles from Turkey so it is no surprise that this 18th century islamic house of worship exists.



Next we made our way to the Ancient Agora. This marketplace was initially built by the Ancient Greeks in 4th centurcy b.c. The same site was then rebuilt and expanded upon by the Romans. City planners used an early version of the city block model, standardizing the size of the lots.



The site is full of mosaics, including an impressively large and intact mosaic depicting the abduction of Europa. Most of the more intact mosaics are roped off and covered by lean-tos in an attempt at preservation. While exploring we were able to find a few on foot level, though, so to speak.



Alright... time for a break in the narrative. Stay tuned for part two of our archeological explorations.