Mandraki Harbour (Site of the Colossus), the 3 Windmills and Sunset at Monte Smith

Immediately north of the medieval walls of Rhodes Old Town curves Mandraki Harbour, for over 2,400 years the main military port of ancient and medieval Rhodes, flanked by grand 1920s Italian Venetian-Gothic public buildings, three medieval stone windmills, a 15th-century sea fortress and the northern beaches of the New Town.

1. Mandraki Harbour, The Deer Columns (Colossus Legend) & St Nicholas Fortress

Stroll along the palm-lined waterfront of Mandraki (passing the 1925 Italian Palazzo Governale, modeled on the Doge's Palace in Venice., and the Cathedral of the Annunciation) out onto the eastern stone breakwater mole:

• The Three Medieval Windmills & 1464 Fortress of St Nicholas: halfway along the mole stand three 15th-century cylindrical stone windmills where grain unloaded from merchant ships was ground for the Knights' garrison, leading out to the circular bastion of Fort St Nicholas (Agios Nikolaos, built 1464 to 1467) crowned by its working lighthouse.
• The Bronze Stag & Doe Columns (And the Truth About the Colossus of Rhodes): guarding the narrow harbour entrance stand two stone columns topped by bronze statues of a male stag (Elafos) and a female doe (Elafina), the ancient emblems of Rhodes (placed on the medieval tower stubs by the Italians in 1932). While popular medieval legend claimed the 33-metre bronze Colossus of Rhodes straddled these two harbour pillars with ships sailing between its legs, modern engineers and archaeologists agree a 33-metre bronze statue could never have spanned a 50-metre gap, instead, it stood on a monumental marble base either right here on the Fort St Nicholas mole or up on the Acropolis of Monte Smith.

2. Elli Beach (The 1930s Diving Platform) & Sunset at the Acropolis of Rhodes (Monte Smith)

Walk five minutes north past the 1927 Grande Albergo delle Rose (Casino Rodos) and the subterranean 1935 Rhodes Aquarium at the very tip of the island to swim off the famous 1930s three-tier octagonal concrete diving board standing in the clear water of Elli Beach. An hour before dusk, drive or take a 5-minute taxi (or Bus 5) up to Monte Smith (St Stephen's Hill, 2 km south-west of town, Free 24/7) to walk the 3rd-century BC Ancient Stadium, the Marble Odeon and the surviving Pythian Apollo Temple columns as the sun sinks into the Aegean.