Rhodes was home to many snakes in ancient Greece antiquity. Rhodes is a small island with a long history. It has been in a strategic position since earliest times.

They hung on in Rhodes and the Dodecanese for another two hundred years, and were ousted by Suleiman I on New Year’s Day in 1523, after an expensive siege of six months’ duration.

Fischer von Erlach, Joseph Emanuel, The Colossus of Rhodes. The Olympian Jupiter. The Dianen Temple at Ephes, 1801 (1693-1742). Photo: Fine Art Images/Heritage Images via Getty Images.

Air temperatures over the past week have exceeded 40°C in many parts of Greece. In addition to Rhodes, wildfires are also burning near Athens and on the island of Corfu.

Take a break from ancient Greece and turn a page to the era of the Crusades in Rhodes. Before you go off exploring the rest of the island, spend a day or two in the cosmopolitan city of Rhodes.

Standing for a little more than 50 years in the third century B.C., Rhodes’s titanic statue of Helios made a colossal impact on Western art, history, and imagination.