The Dodecanese

Two of the Greek Isles we will visit are part of the Dodecanese, literally meaning “the twelve,” a group of islands scattered along the southwest coast of Turkey. This southerly group of islands in the Aegean Sea attracts many visitors because of their hot climate and fine beaches.

Due to their distance from Athens and mainland Greece, these islands were subject to numerous invasions and the ruins left behind attest to their history of occupation by foreign powers. It wasn’t until 1948 that these islands became a part of the Greek state.

Twelve major islands and some 150 smaller islands make up the Dodecanese including Leros, Kalumnos, Kos, Astypalaia, Nisyros, Tilos, Symi, Chalki, Kastellorizo, Karpathos, and the two we will visit: Patmos and Rhodes, the capital of this island group. Only 26 of the islands are inhabited…and some for over 4,000 years!

History shows occupation of various islands by the Minoans, the Greeks, the Dorians, the Persians, and eventually the Roman Empire through the Classical Age. During the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire ruled the islands for almost 1,000 years as seen by the hundreds of churches dotting the islands.

In 1522, Suleiman the Magnificent conquered the islands and the Ottoman Empire ruled the area for several hundred years until 1912 when the islands declared their independence as the Federation of Dodecanese Islands. However, Italy took over almost immediately.

Following World War II, the 1947 Peace Treaty with Italy ended 740 years of foreign occupation and the islands became a part of Greece.