Archaeological Site of Kamiros: An Ancient Dorian City on Rhodes
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Greece
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Iron Age, Classical, Medieval
- Civilizations
- Ancient Greek, Roman
- Site type
- City
On this page21 sections
History
The Archaeological Site of Kamiros is an ancient Dorian Greek city in Greece, on the northwest coast of Rhodes near the modern village of Kalavarda. Habitation in the wider area reaches back to the Mycenaean period, while the city developed from the Late Early Geometric period and took its visible form chiefly during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
Early settlement and foundation
Chamber tombs at Kalavarda date to approximately 1370–1070 BC, showing that the surrounding area was inhabited during the Mycenaean period. Evidence for settlement near Kamiros appears around 900–850 BC, during the Late Early Geometric period. By the Geometric period, a settlement and a sanctuary dedicated to Athena stood on or near the acropolis, and cemeteries developed around the city between approximately 850 and 680 BC.
The Dorians founded Kamiros, which became one of the three principal cities of Rhodes alongside Lindos and Ialysos. It also belonged to the Dorian Hexapolis, a league of six Dorian Greek cities in the southeastern Aegean and southwestern Anatolian region. Homer named Kamiros among the Rhodian cities associated with the Trojan War. Local tradition connected the city’s name with Kamiros, son of Kerkafos and brother of Ialysos and Lindos, while another tradition attributed the foundation of all three cities to Tlepolemus, a legendary founder associated with Rhodes.
Archaic prosperity
During the Archaic period, approximately 680–480 BC, Kamiros prospered through agriculture and skilled production. Olive oil, wine, and figs formed the chief agricultural products, while pottery, ivory working, goldsmithing, glazed faience objects, and metalworking also developed. The city traded with mainland Greece, Asia Minor, and the southeastern Mediterranean.
In the sixth century BC, Kamiros minted its own coins, marked by the image of a fig leaf. Its sanctuary of Athena had already existed for several centuries, and the city’s religious and civic institutions continued to develop. During the fifth century BC, Kamiros joined Lindos and Ialysos in the First Athenian League, an alliance of Greek states led by Athens.
Union with Rhodes
During the Peloponnesian War, the conflict between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, the Rhodian commander Dorieus arrived in 412 BC with a Spartan fleet. Dorieus, son of the Olympic victor Diagoras, persuaded the Rhodians to unite in a single state. The inhabitants of Kamiros, Lindos, and Ialysos subsequently established the city of Rhodes around 408 BC.
Rhodes became the island’s political, economic, and cultural center. Kamiros remained inhabited after this political unification, known as a synoecism, in which separate communities joined into one state or city. Some inhabitants moved to Rhodes, however, and Kamiros gradually declined.
Hellenistic rebuilding and later decline
An earthquake in 226 BC destroyed or severely damaged the earlier city and the Classical temple of Athena. Kamiros was then extensively rebuilt as a Hellenistic city according to the Hippodamian system, a planned urban layout of regularly arranged streets and building blocks associated with the Greek planner Hippodamus of Miletus.
Further earthquake damage affected the city around the middle of the second century AD. Repairs followed, particularly in the agora and residential buildings. The latest building remains belong to Late Antiquity, after which Kamiros declined through gradual abandonment and was eventually deserted rather than disappearing in a single natural disaster.
Excavation and interpretation
Alfred Biliotti and Auguste Salzmann excavated the acropolis between 1852 and 1864, followed by further investigations during the nineteenth century. During the period of Italian rule, the Italian Archaeological School began systematic excavations in 1928 and continued restoration work until the end of the Second World War.
Excavation at Kamiros and discoveries associated with the city brought material to institutions including the British Museum, the Louvre, and the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes. The city is also associated with Peisander of Rhodes, an epic poet of the seventh century BC.
Remains
Kamiros occupies three levels along the natural slope of a hill in a broad amphitheatrical arrangement. The acropolis stood at the summit, the residential quarter spread across the middle terrace, and the lower level contained the agora, sanctuaries, fountain complex, and altar precinct. In the Hellenistic phase, the city followed a regular grid of streets and residential blocks. A principal street or walkway crossed the residential area for approximately 206 metres.
Acropolis and water supply
Sanctuary of Athena Kameiras
The acropolis held the sanctuary of Athena Kameiras, whose earliest use reaches back to the ninth or eighth century BC. Early offerings were placed in pits and cavities cut into the rock. A later temple stood within a peribolos, an enclosed sacred precinct surrounding religious buildings and installations.
Temple of Athena
The later Temple of Athena Kameiras was a Doric, four-columned building surrounded by a colonnade. It occupied the site of an earlier temple destroyed in the earthquake of 226 BC. The surviving remains consist of the temple foundations, which preserve the position of the rebuilt sanctuary.
Acropolis stoa
A long Hellenistic stoa, or covered colonnade, extended for approximately 200–204 metres across the acropolis. It had two rows of Doric columns, an open front, and rooms along the rear for shops, lodging, and other sanctuary-related activities. The columns supported a Doric entablature composed of an architrave, metopes, triglyphs, and cornice. A staircase through the centre of the stoa led towards the upper terrace and temple.
Archaic cistern
Before the stoa was constructed, a covered cistern built around the sixth century BC collected water. Its capacity was approximately 600 cubic metres, enough for about 300–400 families. Terracotta pipes carried water down towards the city. Later installations beneath and below the stoa included underground reservoirs, covered wells, and additional terracotta pipes.
Residential terrace
The middle terrace formed the main residential area. Houses stood in planned blocks and commonly used a Rhodian peristyle, an interior courtyard surrounded on three sides by a covered colonnade and bounded on the fourth by a wall. Mosaic floors, painted decoration, and facades with architraves shaped the surviving domestic architecture.
Agora and religious buildings
Agora and Peribolos of the Altars
The agora formed the civic and commercial centre of the lower city. Sanctuaries and altars bordered the space, including the Peribolos of the Altars. This sacred precinct contained a row of nine similarly arranged inscribed altars dedicated to different gods and local fertility deities, together with a larger altar dedicated to Helios, the Greek sun deity. The Helios altar was restored during the Italian period.
Doric temple
A Doric temple, probably dedicated to Pythian Apollo, stood in the agora area. Apollo Pythios was a form of Apollo associated with the sanctuary at Delphi. The temple was built of porous limestone and contained a pronaos, or entrance porch, a cella, or main inner chamber, and an opisthodomos, or rear chamber. Two columns stood between projecting side walls at the facade. The base for the cult statue survives, while one column and part of a wall have been reconstructed.
Fountain House
The Fountain House dates from the middle of the fourth century BC and stood near the agora. Its facade had six Doric half-columns and a central water basin. The basin was later replaced by a well, and the surrounding area became a square containing a Hellenistic four-sided altar and seating or theatrical steps. A later processional street crossed the area and was filled during the Italian period. The remains also include a colonnade separating the altar area from the square.
Earlier reservoir
Behind the Fountain House was a plastered rectangular reservoir dating from the sixth or fifth century BC. Terracotta pipes connected it with the water supply for private houses, linking the earlier installation with the city’s residential and public water systems.
Baths and archaeological finds
Public baths
Public baths occupied part of the lower city. Their rooms were arranged for hot, warm, and cold bathing, and the complex included a triangular pool. A hypocaust, an underfloor heating system in which hot air circulated beneath the floor from a furnace, warmed the heated rooms.
Votive and funerary material
Kamiros has produced votive offerings, inscribed stelai, statue bases, and plinths. A stele is an upright inscribed or carved stone monument. Two Archaic kouroi, statues of standing nude young men, were found near the altar of Helios. Pottery and other objects from cemeteries and sanctuary deposits illuminate both local production and the city’s connections with communities beyond Rhodes.
