Although considerably built up in the last few decades, the main coastal area southwest of Trianda still preserves a number of a beautiful neoclassical villas, some along the main road itself. Usually marked by venerable pine trees in their gardens (or in a couple of cases by immense ficus magnoliae trees), these elegant constructions date from a period of relative prosperity between 1890 and 1920. In general, the architecture of these villages has many surprises: in the central square of Kremasti, the next village after Trianda, a rusticated Italianate gateway and belfry in front of the church of the Panaghia Katholiki vies for attention with an attractive library building (1927) in the form of a small white temple which could have stepped straight from a rural town-square in the Mississippi delta; a tower, bizarrely decorated with ceramic and earthen ware paraphernalia, can be glimpsed to the left on leaving the village to the south; and in Paradeisi, the next village to the southwest, a neoclassical school building bears the appropriate legend Gymnaseio Paradeisiou—‘School of Paradise’. Kremasti is a lively centre, clustered around a small castle (just inland of the main road) whose base is a 15th century fortress built by the Knights and reworked in later epochs. The nearby church of Aghios Nikolaos has remains of 16th century wall-paintings in its interior: the church is entered through a broad and spacious, wooden roofed porch in Turkish style. The village is noted for its nine-day festival for the Assumption of the Virgin (14– 23 August) which combines religious ceremonies, athletic competitions, craft displays, music and dance, in a manner reminiscent of the ancient festivals of Antiquity. At 13km a new road leaves to the left, connecting the airport with the east coast and the southern suburbs of Rhodes Town. Six kilometres down this road on the right, just south of the village of Pastida, is the Rhodes Bee Museum (open Mon–Sat 8.30–3) with a shop and interesting (live) apiary displays. The coast road continues southwest past the airport. Opposite the terminal buildings on the east side of the main road is a small church with patches of 15th century wall-painting, figuring a regally dressed St Helen holding the True Cross. At 21km, the Hellenistic Sanctuary of Erythimian Apollo is signed to the left (500m). The epithet, Erythimian—‘reddened’ or ‘flushed’—is unusual: but a widespread local tendency towards identification of Apollo with Helios may indicate that this is a dedica tion to Apollo as manifested in the incandescent colour of the setting or rising sun. Little remains to be seen of the temple: a succession of archaeologists’ sounding trenches, partially revealing a crepidoma and some sanctuary buildings (constructed not in dressed marble, but in sandstone), with Early Christian overlay. Two sections of building-base(s) are recognisable (one to each side of the road) on a north-east/south-west orientation. A well constructed ancient drain cuts east/west under the site. This whole, low-lying area has yielded much archaeological interest: tombs from Mycenaean and Archaic periods, and ancient architectural fragments from around the church of Aghios Ioannis in the village of Theologos.
Rhodes Island is part of the Dodecanese Island Group, Greece.