Camirus or Kamiros (; ) or Cameirus or Kameiros (Κάμειρος) was a city of

ancient Rhodes Rhodes (, ''Ródos'' ) is the principal city and a former municipality on the island of Rhodes in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. ...

, in the

Dodecanese The Dodecanese (, ; , ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger and 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited. This island group generally define ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Its site is on the northwest coast of the island, west of the modern village of

Kalavarda Kalavarda () is a small town in the island of Rhodes, Greece with a population of 514 (2021). It is about 28 kilometers from the island's capital, Rhodes, and about 52 kilometers from the city Lindos Lindos (; ) is an archaeological site, a fishi ...

History

The ancient city was built on three levels. At the top of the hill was the

acropolis An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens ...

, with the temple complex of

Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretism, syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarde ...

Kameiras and the

stoa A stoa (; plural, stoas,"stoa", ''Oxford English Dictionary'', 2nd Ed., 1989 stoai, or stoae ), in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually ...

. A covered

reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric power generation. Reservoirs are created by controlling a watercourse that drains an existing body of wa ...

having a capacity of 600 cubic meters of water—enough for up to 400 families—was constructed about the sixth century BC. Later, the stoa was built over the reservoir. The stoa consisted of two rows of Doric columns with rooms for shops or lodgings in the rear. The main settlement was on the middle terrace, consisting of a grid of parallel streets and residential blocks. On the lower terrace are found a Doric temple, probably to

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

; the

Fountain A fountain, from the Latin "fons" ( genitive "fontis"), meaning source or spring, is a decorative reservoir used for discharging water. It is also a structure that jets water into the air for a decorative or dramatic effect. Fountains were o ...

House, with the

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

in front of it; and Peribolos of the Altars, which contained dedications to various deities. During the prehistoric period the area was inhabited by

Mycenaean Greeks Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1750 to 1050 BC.. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainla ...

. The city itself was founded by the

Dorians The Dorians (; , , singular , ) were one of the four major ethnic groups into which the Greeks, Hellenes (or Greeks) of Classical Greece divided themselves (along with the Aeolians, Achaeans (tribe), Achaeans, and Ionians). They are almost alw ...

. The temple foundations were begun at least as early as the eighth century BC. The earthquake of 226 BC destroyed the city and the temple. The earthquake of 142 AD destroyed the city for the second time. The Acropolis was excavated by

Alfred Biliotti Sir Alfred Biliotti (14 July 1833 – 1 February 1915) was a Italian Levantine, Levantine Italian, born on Rhodes, who became a British Consul (representative), consular official and amateur archaeologist. Biliotti probably received little ...

and Auguste Salzmann between 1859 and 1864. Many of the finds from their digs are now kept in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

in London.British Museum Collection
/ref> In 1928 the

Italian Archaeological School The Italian School of Archaeology at Athens (; ) is one of the 19 foreign archaeological institutes headquartered in Athens, Greece, with branch offices in Crete, Limnos and Rome. Following earlier Italian research in Greece (as an archaeologica ...

began a systematic excavation of the area together with restoration work which continued until the end of the Second World War.

Gallery

File:Rhodes Kameiros tango7174.jpg, Panoramic view File:Kameiros - Fountain square 03.jpg, Fountain Square File:Kameiros - Staircase.jpg, Staircase File:Hierothyteion 01.jpg, The Hierothyteion File:Kameiros - Main street 02.jpg, Main street File:Camiros Kameiros ruins detail.jpg, Houses of the Hellenistic period File:Ancient Kamiros, Baths.jpg, Baths of the city

Notable people

Peisander Peisander (; ) of Camirus in Rhodes, Ancient Greek epic poet, supposed to have flourished about 640 BC. Biography Peisander was the author of a ''Heracleia'' (Ἡράκλεια), in which he introduced a new conception of the hero Heracles' cost ...

(7th century BC), epic poet

References

External links

Présentation de Camiros
by Claire Tuan (French text and photographs)
Ancient Kamiros
on Discover Rhodes Doric Hexapolis Destroyed populated places Ancient Greek archaeological sites in Greece Populated places in the ancient Aegean islands Archaeological sites on Rhodes Former populated places in Greece Members of the Delian League Greek city-states {{AncientAegean-geo-stub