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Tourist information - Kos
Kos is the second largest and most popular island in the Dodecanese. Here the harbour is guarded by an imposing castle of the Knights of St John; the streets are lined with grandiose Italian public buildings; and minarets and palm trees punctuate extensive Hellenistic and Roman remains. Although its hinterland for the most part lacks the wild beauty of Rhodes', the larger Dodecanese Island, acre for acre Kos is the more fertile of the two, blessed with rich soil and abundant ground water.
Mass tourism has largely displaced the old agricultural economy amongst the population - virtually the entire coast is fringed by beaches of various sizes, colours and consistencies.
The capital of Kos is Kos Town. The town of Kos is home to over half of the island's population, spreads in all directions from the harbour, with most of its charm residing in scattered ancient and medieval antiquities. Apart from the Knights' castle, the first thing you see on arrival, there's a wealth of Hellenistic and Roman remains, many of which were only revealed by an earthquake in 1933, and excavated subsequently by the Italians, who also planned and laid out the "garden suburb" extending east of the central grid. Elsewhere, vast areas of open space alternate with a hotchpotch of Ottoman monuments and later mock-medieval or Art Deco buildings.
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