Rhodes Town - The Moat in My Eye and Vice-Versa

Getting There

two people crossing the moat on a former drawbridge

Massive walls with tunnel entrance near base

Oh boy! Crocodiles! Moat monsters!

No such luck. In Rhodes' time moats were wide and dry. Their job was to prevent seige towers being pushed up to the city walls, and to make attackers an easy target for arrows, greek fire, hot oil and the like

The Rhodes Town moat is an archaeological site, and also contains an outdoor theater, and hundreds of giant stone marbles, of which more later.

Three bridges carry streets across the moat to the new town. Three low-profile passages carry pedestrians through the walls down into the moat. If the passages are just too hard to find, the moat is also open at each end, by the waterfront. You pass one entry as you walk into town from the ferry.

Scooter in archway at end of stone bridge

Flora

Pampas grass fronds, in front of the old city wall

Green & yellow agave-like cactus in front of counterscarp wall

Did I mention the gusty (and gutsy) Spring wind that has been blowing most of the time I've been here? Even down here in the moat! Check this pampas grass.

Poppies grow in more fields than Flanders'. Fifteen thousand people are said to have died in this section of moat in a single day of the seige of 1522. Mostly young men in the army of Suleiman, who still had the gall to call himself magnificent after that.

The entire moat is a huge unmarked, cemetary. Once you know, it adds a certain gravitas to a visit here.

The Matter of the Balls and Vice-Versa

A dozen or so tone spheres, ~2ft diameter, lying on the ground

In an earlier post, I mentioned the giant stone marbles that abound in the moat and occasional other places around the city.

I have read that Turkish cannon by 1500 could fire balls 7 feet in circumference, which would make them about the size of the big marbles.

Big stone sphere embedded high in city wall

Three big stone sphere embedded high in city wall

So is that what they are - cannon balls? I was sure of it when I first saw one embedded in the outer wall 100+ ft up. Then I found other places where a set of three is embedded up there, evenly, precisely, equally-spaced.

So I still don't know the intended nature of these big stone marbles. If cannon balls, why embed them in threes so high up? If not, then what? (How many cannon do you need to kill to get that many balls, anyway?)

Later: they appear to be shot for the Bombard Mortar of the Knights of St. John of Rhodes.

The Labyrinth Beneath

There is an underground network of tunnels beneath the walls and moat. You cannot buy a map, there is no lighting. Some entrances are locked, others mere meters away are open, if intimidating. A fellow named Graeme Jones is slowly mapping the network, using some kind of laser surveying device. He showed me his maps so far. Says he brings three lights when he goes in.

I managed to make my way between two entrances, maybe 100' underground with two corners. There was enough light (barely) from the entrances to find the way, but I cheated and used my pocket flashlight. My little camera is not up to the challenge of getting good pictures in there.

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