Lindos Acropolis Museum

Anyone looking for a Lindos Acropolis Museum should know that the sanctuary's treasures are not displayed on the hill itself. What stands on the rock of Lindos, about 116 metres above the sea, is the open-air site of the Acropolis of Lindos, with its Propylaea, the Hellenistic Stoa and the temple platform of Athena Lindia. The portable finds from the sanctuary were taken away in the early twentieth century and are now spread across several collections, mainly the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes in the old Hospital of the Knights, with other pieces abroad.

The story of those finds starts with the Danish excavations at Lindos between 1902 and 1914, led by Karl Frederik Kinch and Christian Blinkenberg. They cleared the Byzantine and medieval layers and uncovered the ancient sanctuary underneath, recording thousands of votive offerings: small bronze and terracotta figures, vases, jewellery and dedications of every kind, left by worshippers over many centuries. Alongside them came inscriptions, the most famous being the Lindian Chronicle, a stone text of 99 BC that lists the gifts given to Athena and the donors who gave them, a sort of ancient catalogue of the sanctuary's treasury.

Those records explain what the ruins on the hill meant. Athena Lindia was worshipped here from early times, and kings, cities and individuals sent dedications, among them, according to the Chronicle, offerings from legendary heroes and famous rulers. The monumental stairway, the Propylaea and the long stoa were built in the Hellenistic period to give the sanctuary a grand approach, and the temple that followed a fire in the fourth century BC became the focus of the cult.

For a visitor, the sensible approach is to treat the site and the museum in Rhodes Town as parts of one story. Climb the Acropolis of Lindos first, preferably early in the day to avoid the heat, and look at how the platform and the walls of the Knights of St John fit around the earlier buildings. Then, back in the Old Town of Rhodes, see the objects themselves, in the building that once served as the Knights' hospital. Labels there place the Lindian material in the wider history of the island.

Practical details change by season and are posted at the entrance, so check them on the day. The path is steep and polished, and there is little shade, so water, sun protection and shoes with grip are important. Tickets are sold at the foot of the hill, where the donkeys wait, and the walk up takes about twenty minutes at an easy pace. The panorama of the Aegean Sea from the top, and the bay of Lindos below, is part of the experience.