Dodekánisa literally means 12 islands, but only the bigger ones are actually 15, plus dozens smaller ones.

At the far Southeastern end of the Aegean, a beautiful archipelago, past Crete and close to the coast of Asia Minor (Turkey). History there is as rich as its seas, which host the best sponges in the entire world,

notably those from Kalymnos. This fact led to the invention of the skaphandrus, the diving apparatus created by Greeks from this area, who soon spread the practice throughout the Mediterranean.

Rhodes held the fabulous Colossus, a symbol of the region power and prosperity in antiquity

and one of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World. Kos is nothing less than the site of the School of Medicine founded by Hippocrates. Patmos is where Saint John wrote his Revelation.

Greek and Roman ruins, Byzantine churches, monasteries, medieval castles, Venetian architecture, mosques and fascist concrete tell the story of invasions, dominations and struggles of these islanders,

in the last territory freed from Arab, Italian and German occupations and added back to Greece,

after 740 years of foreign rule.