Monolithos

This guide to Monolithos on Rhodes follows the Knights Hospitaller castle that Grand Master Pierre d'Aubusson ordered raised on a sheer rock above the sea in 1480, part of a chain of watchtowers signaling threats toward the capital by fire and carrier pigeon. You'll hear how builders solved the fortress's central problem, water, by carving cisterns into rock with no spring for miles, and about the small whitewashed chapel to Saint Panteleimon still standing inside the ruined walls. Stand at the wall and look toward the island of Chalki, the sightline that gave this rock its purpose.