Rhodes - Discover the Unknown Rhodes

C H A P T E R 1
The clock tower
A Turkish fountain
Ayia Kiriaki
26
Leaving the Palace of the Grand Masters
and walking towards the Clock Tower (clearly
visible at the highest point of the city because
during Turkish rule it marked the hour at which
the Greek inhabitants had to leave the city
walls) we have the old town at our feet, and
nothing could be lovelier than losing oneself
among the alleyways of the Christian, Turkish
and Jewish quarters. Churches, mosques,
crosses and minarets alternate, at times blurring
into one, and always counterbalancing one
another now that the battles for dominion
over the city are long-passed. At the time of the
Ottoman occupation many churches were
transformed into mosques simply by removing
the sacred objects and replacing them with the
Islamic mihrab, minbar and qibla, and naturally
adding a minaret. Many churches have been
re-consecrated without demolishing the
minarets, mute testimonies to a history that
lasted almost four centuries.
Crowning a dominant position is the
finely chiselled minaret of the Mosque of
Suleiman with its red domes, whilst in front of it
we find the Ottoman Library with an interesting
collection of objects and books from the
Turkish period. A little further on there stand
the churches of the Holy Apostles (now