The climate is mild most of the year. This fact, together with the long hours
of sunshine and the marvellous beaches has raised the island to the level of
an international tourist centre. Kos can be reached direct by air from many
of the capitals of Europe, as well as from Athens and Rhodes. There are ferries
to Kos from the rest of Dodecanese, Piraeus, the Cyclades, Crete the islands
of the northern and eastern Aegean and Kavala.
In 460 BC Hippocrates was born ?n Kos. After his death the people of Kos built
the famous Asklepeion, in honor of the god Asclepios, which operated as a hospital
applying the methods of therapy taught by Hippocrates.
The city of Kos, the capital and the chief port of the island, is on the north-east
coast, very near to the shores of Turkey. It is a most attractive city, rebuilt
after the 1933 earthquake. South of the Venetian castle of the Knights of St.
John a bridge, crossing over the beautiful Avenue of Palms, links the castle
with the famous plane tree of Hippocrates. It is said that Hippocrates planted
this vast plane tree and that he taught medicine in its shade.
Asklepeion stands at a distance of 4 km southwest of Kos town. Because of the
slope of the ground, the buildings were put up on a number of levels, with steps
between them. On the first level are the remains of a small temple and a fountain.
In the center of the second level there are remains of the altar of Asklepios
and those of a temple to Asklepios in the lonic order. To the east are ruins
of the temple of Apollo. On the highest level are the foundations and columns
of a Doric temple to Asklepios. This temple was the most sacred in the Asklepeion.
|
