A large island of the Aegean sea, mentioned in Paul's third missionary journey to Jerusalem; he passed it apparently without landing (Acts 21:1). The day before he was at Cos, an island on the N.W. From Rhodes he went eastward to Patara in Lycia. The wind was probably, as often in the Levant, blowing from N.W. S.W. of Asia Minor, having Caria to the N. and Lycia to the E. The people were honorable, upright, and prudent; famed for mercantile pursuits. Its temple to the sun, and the colossus, a statue of Apollo, 105 ft. high, executed by Chares of Lindos, a native artist, 288 B.C. were famous. The coins bear on the obverse the head of Apollo as the sun (the proverb said the sun shone every day on Rhodes), on the reverse the rose from which Rhodes takes its name. The capital is at the N.E. of the island. It was the last spot where the Christians of the East held out against the advancing Saracens, and was subsequently noted as the home and fortress of the knights of John.