Rhodes, Colossus

The SS City of Rhodes arrived at the City of Rhodes on the Island of Rhodes, and believe us, while the SS City of Rhodes is not too great, the real city of Rhodes is fabulous. This medieval city has been restored, and is as beautiful a walled city as any of the hundreds we have seen in other countries in Europe.

Built of bronze, the Colossus of Rhodes was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ninety-eight (or 110 or 120, references differ) feet high, reinforced with stone and iron, the Colossus stood, we are usually told, with one foot on each side of the harbor. Other references authoritatively insist it stood beside, not astride the harbor entrance. Sixty years later, in 226 BC, an earthquake caused the Colossus to crash to the ground. During an Arab invasion in AD 653, the bronze remains was broken up and sold as scrap metal — it had laid there nearly 900 years.

Two columns, one with a statue of a roe, the other a buck, were erected where the Colossus of Rhodes (might have!) stood.