Kos

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Kos

Kos or Cos (; ; ; formerly Stanchio in English) is a Greek

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkans. It has borders with Albania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia to the north, and Turkey to the east....
island in the south Sporades

Sporades

The Sporades are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea, in the Aegean Sea. It consists of 24 islands, of which five are inhabited: Alonnisos, Skiathos, Skopelos, Peristera and Skyros....
group of the Dodecanese

Dodecanese

The Dodecanese are a group of 12 larger plus 150 smaller Greece list of islands of Greece in the Aegean Sea, off the southwest coast of Turkey, southward of the island of Samos and northeastward of the island of Crete....
, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos

Gulf of Gökova

The Gulf of G?kova , Gulf of Kerme , or Gulf of Cos, is a long , narrow Headlands and bays of the Aegean Sea which separates the Bodrum peninsula from the Resadiye peninsula in southwest Turkey....
. It measures 40 km by 8 km, and is only 4 km from the coast of Bodrum

Bodrum

Bodrum , formerly Halicarnassus , is a Turkey port town in Mugla Province, in the southwestern Aegean Region, Turkey of the country. It is located on the southern coast of Bodrum Peninsula, at a point that checks the entry into the Gulf of G?kova, and it faces the Greece island of Kos....
, Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in southwest Asia and Thrace in the Balkans region of Southern Europe....
and the ancient region of Caria

Caria

Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians and Dorians Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there....
. The island has both fertile plains and mountainous highlands with a population of 30,947. It comprises three municipalities

Communities and Municipalities of Greece

The municipalities and communities of Greece are one of several levels of government within the organizational structure of that country. Thirteen regions called Peripheries of Greece form the largest unit of government beneath the State....
: Kos, the administrative center and largest town (pop.

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Encyclopedia

Kos or Cos (; ; ; formerly Stanchio in English) is a Greek

Greece

Sporades

Dodecanese

Gulf of Gökova

Bodrum

Turkey

Caria

Communities and Municipalities of Greece

Dikaio

Dikaio is a Communities and Municipalities of Greece on the island of Kos, in the Dodecanese prefecture of Greece. Population 6,094 . The seat of the municipality is in Ziparion ....
, and Irakleides

Irakleides

Irakleides is a municipality on the island of Kos, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Population 6,963 . It is the largest in area of the three municipalities on the island, at 160.538 km?, and comprises 55.3% of the island's territory....
.

History

The island was originally colonised by the Carians

Carians

The Carians were the ancient inhabitants of Caria....
. A contingent from Kos participated in the War of Troy The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a large contingent of settlers from Epidaurus

Epidaurus

Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. The modern town Epidavros , part of the prefecture of Argolis, was built near the ancient site....
who took with them their Asclepius

Asclepius

Asclepius is the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts, while his daughters Hygieia, Meditrina, Iaso, Aceso, Aglaea and Panacea symbolize the forces of cleanliness, medicine, and healing, respectively....
cult and made their new home famous for its sanatoria. The other chief sources of the island's wealth lay in its wines, and in later days, in its silk manufacture.

Its early history as part of the religious-political amphictyony that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Cnidus, and Halicarnassus, is obscure. At the end of the 6th century Kos fell under Achaemenid domination, but rebelled after the Greek victory at Cape Mykale in 479. During the Greco-Persian Wars

Greco-Persian Wars

For other Persian wars, see Roman-Persian Wars, Islamic conquest of Persia, Iraq war , and Military history of Iran.The Greco-Persian Wars were a series of conflicts between several ancient Greece city-states and the Achaemenid Empire that started in 499 BC and lasted until 448 BC....
, when it expelled the Persians twice, it was ruled by tyrants, but as a rule it seems to have been under an oligarchic government. In the 5th century it joined the Delian League

Delian League

The Delian League was an association of approximately 150 5th-century BC Ancient Greece city-states under the leadership of Classical Athens, whose purpose was to continue fighting the Persian Empire after the Greek victory in the Battle of Plataea at the end of the Greco?Persian Wars....
, and after the revolt of Rhodes

Rhodes

Rhodes is a Greece List of islands of Greece approximately southwest of Turkey in eastern Aegean Sea. It is the largest of the Dodecanese islands in terms of both land area and population, with a population of 117,007 of which 53,709 resided in the Rhodes capital city of the island....
served as the chief Athenian

History of Athens

The History of Athens is one of the longest of any city in Europe and in the world. Athens has been continuously inhabited for over 4,500 years, becoming the leading city of Ancient Greece in the first millennium BC; its cultural achievements during the 5th century BC laid the foundations of western culture....
station in the south-eastern Aegean (411-407). In 366 BC, a democracy was instituted. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the Social War (357-355 BC)

Social War (357-355 BC)

The Social War, also known as the War of the Allies, was fought from 357 BC to 355 BC between Athens with its Second Athenian Empire and between the allies of Chios, Rhodes, and Kos as well as the independent Byzantium....
, it fell for a few years to the king Mausolus

Mausolus

Mausolus was ruler of Caria . He took part in the revolt against Artaxerxes II , conquered a great part of Lycia, Ionia and several Greece List of islands of Greece and cooperated with the Rhodes and their allies in the Social War against Athens....
of Caria

Caria

Caria was a region of western Anatolia extending along the coast from mid-Ionia south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. The Ionians and Dorians Greeks colonized the west of it and joined the Carian population in forming Greek-dominated states there....
. In 366 BC, the capital was transferred from Astypalaia

Astypalaia

Astipalea is a Greece island with 1,238 residents . It belongs to the Dodecanese, an island group of twelve major islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea....
to the new-built town of Kos, laid out in a Hippodamian grid plan.

In the Hellenistic

Hellenistic Greece

In the context of Ancient Greek art, architecture, and culture, Hellenistic Greece corresponds to the period between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the annexation of the Classical Greece heartlands by Roman Republic in 146 BC....
age Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Its alliance was valued by the kings of Egypt, who used it as an outpost for their navy to watch the Aegean. As a seat of learning it rose to be a kind of provincial branch of the museum of Alexandria

Alexandria

Alexandria , with a population of 4.1 million, is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is the country's largest seaport, serving about 80% of Egypt's imports and exports....
, and became a favorite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty; among its most famous sons were the physician Hippocrates

Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos - ancient Greek: ; Hippokr?tes was an Ancient Greece physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine....
, the painter Apelles

Apelles

Apelles of Kos was a renowned Painting of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists....
, the poets Philitas and, perhaps, Theocritus

Theocritus

Theocritus , the creator of ancient Greek bucolic poetry, flourished in the 3rd century BC....
.

Kos was also known as Meropis and Nymphæa. Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus

Diodorus Siculus , was a Roman Greece historian who flourished in the 1st century BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agira in Sicily ....
(xv. 76) and Strabo

Strabo

Strabo was a Ancient Greeks history, geography and philosophy....
(xiv. 657) describe it as a well-fortified port. Its position gave it a high importance in Ægean trade; while the island itself was rich in wines of considerable fame (Pliny

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
, xxxv. 46). Under Alexander III

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great , also known as Alexander III of Macedon was an ancient Greeks King of Macedon . He was one of the most successful military commanders of all time and is presumed undefeated in battle....
of Macedon

Macedon

Macedon or Macedonia was the name of a monarchy centred in the northernmost part of ancient Greece. The homeland of the ancient Macedonians, it was bordered by the kingdom of Epirus to the west and the region of Thrace to the east....
and the Egyptian Ptolemies

Ptolemaic dynasty

The Ptolemaic dynasty was a Hellenistic Macedonian royal family which ruled the Ptolemaic Empire in Egypt for nearly 300 years, from 305 BC to 30 BC....
(from 336 B.C.) the town developed into one of the great centers in the Ægean; Josephus

Josephus

Josephus , also known as Yosef Ben Matityahu and, after he became a Roman citizenship, as Titus Flavius Josephus, was a first-century Jewish historian and apologist of priestly and royal ancestry who survived and recorded the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70....
("Ant." xiv. 7, § 2) quotes Strabo to the effect that Mithridates

Mithridates

Mithridates or Mithradates is the Hellenistic form of an Iranian theophoric name, meaning "given by the deity Mithra". It may refer to:...
was sent to Kos to fetch the gold deposited there by the queen Cleopatra of Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt

Ptolemaic Egypt began when Ptolemy I Soter declared himself Pharaoh of Egypt in 305 BC and ended with the death of queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt and the Aegyptus in 30 BC....
. Herod

Herod the Great

Herod , also known as Herod I or Herod the Great , was a Roman Empire client state of Israel. Herod is known for his colossal building projects in Jerusalem and other parts of the ancient world, including the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, sometimes referred to as Herod's Temple....
is said to have provided an annual stipend for the benefit of prize-winners in the athletic games (Josephus, "B. J." i. 21, § 11), and a statue was erected there to his son Herod the Tetrarch ("C. I. G." 2502 ).

Except for occasional incursions by corsairs and some severe earthquakes, the island has rarely had its peace disturbed. Following the lead of its great neighbour, Rhodes, Kos generally displayed a friendly attitude towards the Romans; in 53 AD it was made a free city. The island was later conquered by the Venetians

Republic of Venice

The Most Serene Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic was a state originating from the city of Venice . It existed for over a millennium, from the late 7th century AD until the year 1797....
, who then sold it to the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta is a Roman Catholic Church order based in Rome, Italy....
of Rhodes (the Knights of St John) in 1315. Two hundred years later the Knights faced the threat of a Turkish invasion and abandoned the island to the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299?1923. It was Treaty of Lausanne by the Republic of Turkey, which was officially proclaimed on October 29, 1923....
in 1523. The Ottomans ruled Kos for 400 years until it was transferred to Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia....
in 1912. In World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
, the island was taken over by Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the colloquial English names for Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party , which established a Totalitarianism dictatorship that existed from 1933 to 1945....
until 1945, when it became a protectorate of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, who ceded it to Greece in 1947.

Geography

The island

Island

An island or isle is any piece of land that is surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls are called islets....
is part of a chain of mountains

Mountain range

A mountain range is a chain of mountains bordered by highlands or separated from other mountains by mountain pass or valleys. Individual mountains within the same mountain range do not necessarily have the same geology, though they often do; they may be a mix of different orogeny, for example volcanoes, uplifted mountains or Fold mountains...
from which it became separated after earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes are recorded with a seismometer, also known as a seismograph....
s and subsidence that occurred in ancient times. These mountains include Kalymnos

Kalymnos

Kalymnos, is a Greece island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece in the southeastern Aegean Sea. It belongs to the Dodecanese and is located to the west of the peninsula of Bodrum , between the islands of Kos and Leros : the latter is linked to it through a series of islets....
and Kappari

Pserimos

Pserimos is a small Greece island in the Dodecanese chain, lying between Kalymnos and Kos in front of the coast of Turkey. It is part of the municipality of K?lymnos, and reported a population of 130 inhabitants at the 2001 census....
which are separated by an underwater chasm c. 70 m (40 fathom

Fathom

A fathom is a Units of measurement of length in the Imperial unit , used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in a fathom....
s deep), as well as the volcano

Volcano

A volcano is an opening, or rupture, in a planet's surface or Crust , which allows hot, molten rock, ash, and gases to escape from below the surface....
of Nisyros

Nisyros

Nisyros is a Volcano Greece island and Communities and Municipalities of Greece located in the Aegean Sea. It is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, situated between the islands of Kos and Tilos....
and the surrounding islands.

There are a wide variety of rocks in Kos which is related to its geographical formation. Prominent among these are the Quaternary

Quaternary

The Quaternary Period is the Geologic Time Scale period after the Neogene Period, spanning 1.805 +/- 0.005 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary includes two geologic epochs: the Pleistocene and the Holocene epoch ....
layers in which the fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or trace fossil of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous Rock formations and sedimentary rock layers is known as the fossil record....
remains of mammal

Mammal

Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals whose name is derived from their distinctive feature, mammary glands, with which they feed their young....
s such as horse

Horse

The horse is a hoofed mammal, a subspecies of one of seven extant species of the family Equidae. The horse has evolution of the horse over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, odd-toed ungulate animal of today....
s, hippopotami

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus or hippo is a large, mostly herbivore African mammal, one of only two Extant taxon species in the scientific classification Hippopotamidae ....
and elephant

Elephant

Elephants are large land mammals of the order Proboscidea and the family Elephantidae. There are three living species: the African Bush Elephant, the African Forest Elephant and the Asian Elephant ....
s have been found. The fossilised molar

Molar (tooth)

Molars are the rearmost and most complicated kind of tooth in most mammals. In many mammals they grind food; hence the Latin name mola, "millstone"....
of an elephant of gigantic proportions was presented to the Paleontology

Paleontology

File:Geological time spiral - sharper.pngPaleontology from Greek: pa?a??? "old, ancient", ??, ??t- "being, creature", and ????? "speech, thought" is the study of prehistory life, including organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments ....
Museum of the University of Athens.

The shores of Kos Island are washed by the waters of the Aegean Sea. Its coastline is 112 km long and is caressed by long immaculate beach

Beach

File:MiamiSouthBeachPanoramaEdit.jpgA beach is a geology landform along the shoreline of a body of water. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of Rock , such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, pebbles, or cobble....
es, leading to its main industry being tourism

Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational or leisure purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from...
. Farming

Agriculture

Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
is the principal occupation of many of the island's inhabitants, with their main crops being grape

Grape

File:Table grapes on white.jpgA grape is the non-Climacteric #In_botany fruit that grows on the Perennial plant and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis....
s, almond

Almond

The Almond is a species of tree of the genus Prunus, belonging to the subfamily Prunoideae of the family Rosaceae and native to the Middle East....
s, figs

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone....
, olive

Olive

The Olive is a species of small tree in the family Oleaceae, native to the coastal areas of the eastern Mediterranean region, from Lebanon, Syria and the maritime parts of Turkey and northern Iran at the south end of the Caspian Sea....
s, and tomato

Tomato

The Tomato is an herbaceous, usually sprawling plant in the Solanaceae or nightshade family, as are its close cousins Nicotiana, potatoes, aubergine , chilli peppers, and the poisonous Atropa belladonna....
es, along with wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
and corn

Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
. Cos lettuce

Romaine lettuce

Romaine or cos lettuce is a variety of lettuce which grows in a long head of sturdy leaves with a firm rib down the center. Unlike most lettuces, it is tolerant of heat....
may be grown here, but the name is unrelated.

The main village

Village

A village is a clustered human settlement or Residential community, larger than a hamlet , but smaller than a town or city. Though generally located in rural areas, the term urban village may be applied to certain urban area neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New York City and the Saifi Village in Beirut, Lebanon....
s of Kos island are Kardamena

Kardamena

Kardamena , is a small Greece town 7 km from Kos Island International Airport at Antimachia, situated mid-way along the south coast of the island of Kos....
, Kefalos

Kefalos

Kefalos, a Greece resort, is situated at the southwest side of the island of Kos, in the Communities and Municipalities of Greece of Irakleides, 43 km from Kos Town....
, Tingaki, Antimachia, Mastihari, Marmari and Pyli. Smaller ones are Zia, Zipari, Platani, Lagoudi and Asfendiou.

Culture

The main port and population centre on the island, also called Kos, is also the tourist and cultural centre, with whitewashed buildings including many hotels, restaurants and a small number of nightclubs forming the famous Kos town "barstreet". The town has a 14th century fortress

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs....
at the entrance to its harbour

Harbor

A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. Harbors can be man-made or natural....
, erected in 1315 by The Knights of Saint John of Rhodes.

The ancient physician Hippocrates is thought to have been born on Kos, and in the center of the town is the Plane Tree of Hippocrates

Tree of Hippocrates

The Tree of Hippocrates is the Platanus under which, according to the legend, Hippocrates of Kos taught his pupils the art of medicine. Apostle Paul of Tarsus purportedly taught here as well....
, a dream temple where the physician is traditionally supposed to have taught. The limbs of the now elderly tree are supported by scaffolding. The small city is also home to the International Hippocratic Institute and the Hippocratic Museum

Hippocratic Museum

The Hippocratic Museum is a museum, on the Greece island of Kos, dedicated to the ancient Greeks physician Hippocrates who was believed to have been born there....
dedicated to him. Near the Institute are the ruins of Asklepieion

Asclepieion

In ancient Greece, an asclepieion was a healing temple, sacred to the god Asclepius.Starting around 300 BC, the cult of Asclepius became increasingly popular....
, where Herodicus

Herodicus

Herodicus was a Greeks physician of the fifth century BC, and a native of Selymbria. The first use of therapeutic exercise for the treatment of disease and maintenance of health is credited to him, and he is believed to have been one of the tutors of Hippocrates....
taught Hippocrates medicine. Kardamena is a popular resort for young British holidaymakers and has a large number of bars and nightclubs.

Religion

The main religion practiced is Greek Orthodoxy

Greek Orthodox Church

The term Greek Orthodox Church refers to several churches within the larger full communion of Eastern Orthodox Church Christianity sharing a common cultural tradition and whose liturgy is traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament....
. Kos has one of the four cathedral

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop. It is a Religion building for worship, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicanism, Orthodox Christian and some Lutheranism churches, which serves as a bishop's seat, and thus as the central church of a dioc...
s in the entire Dodecanese. There is also a Roman Catholic Church

Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church, officially known as the Catholic Church is the world's largest Christianity Ecclesia , representing over half of all Christians and one-sixth of the world population....
on the island as well as a Mosque

Mosque

A mosque is a place of worship for followers of Islam. Muslims often refer to the mosque by its Arabic name, masjid, ? . The word "mosque" in English refers to all types of buildings dedicated for Islamic worship, although there is a distinction in Arabic between the smaller, privately owned mosque and the larger, "collective" mosque ,...
catering to the Muslim

Muslim

:A Muslim , , is an adherent of the religion of Islam. The feminine form is Muslimah . Literally, the word means "one who submits "....
community of Kos. The Synagogue

Synagogue

A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer.Synagogues usually have a large hall for prayer , smaller rooms for study and sometimes a social hall and offices....
is no longer used for religious ceremonies as the Jewish community

Jew

A Jew is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnoreligious group that traces its ancestry to the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East....
of Kos was practically wiped out by the Nazis

Nazism

Nazism, officially National Socialism , refers to the ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Workers? Party under Adolf Hitler, and the policies adopted by the dictatorial government of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945....
in World War II. It has, however, been restored and is maintained with all religious symbols intact and is now used by the Municipality of Kos for various events, mainly cultural.

Notable people

Hippocrates
Hippocrates

Hippocrates of Cos II or Hippokrates of Kos - ancient Greek: ; Hippokr?tes was an Ancient Greece physician of the Age of Pericles, and was considered one of the most outstanding figures in the history of medicine....
(5th century BC), "father of medicine"
Apelles
Apelles

Apelles of Kos was a renowned Painting of ancient Greece. Pliny the Elder, to whom we owe much of our knowledge of this artist rated him superior to preceding and subsequent artists....
(4th century BC) painter
Marika Papagika
Marika Papagika

Marika Papagika was a popular Greece singer in the early 20th century and one of the first Greek women singers to be heard on sound recordings....
(early 20th century) singer

Kos

History

Geography

Culture

Religion

Notable people

See also

External links