This is the right place to get correct information for Kos island and Greece, Greece Tours, Turkey Tours. Kos is one of the most beautiful and sunniest islands of the Aegean Sea. It lies at the south eastern point of the Aegean Sea and is the third in extent island of the twelve in greek Islands. Various mythological dynasties left their mark on Kos, such as the Meropes-Triopes who were descended from the Carians of Asia Minor end gave the island the name "Maropis" or "Merope" and a little later "Koos" or "Kos". Mythology would likewise associate the island with the adventures and labours of Herakles, who was said to have given rise to the new dynasty of the Herakleidians.
Together with the surrounding islands, Kos took part in the Trojan War, sending Pheidippos and Antiphos, sons of King Thessalos, with 30 deep hulled ships.
After the 10th century BC, the Dorians occupied Kos. This led gradually to the growth of the communities (demoi), such as those of the Isthmiots, Halasarnitai, Antimachids, Aigelii, Archiades,Phyxiotes or Pyxiotes, Alenties, Peliti end Hippiotes. The island's first capital was Astypalaia on the southwest side, which experienced great cultures development.
During the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., Kos, together with the cities of Knidos end Halicarnassos in Asia Minor, and lalysos, Kamerios and Lindos on Rhodes, formed the Doric Hexapolis, a league with political, economic and religious concerns.
Kos suffered greatly as a result of the Persian wars (500-478 BC). After the battle of Mykale (479 BC), it became independent and joined the confederation of Greek states under theleadership of Athens.
During the years that followed, the island saw the development of two capitals on the north-eastern side. One was the "Meropis Kos" without a harbour, end the other "Kos" with a good-sizedharbour, built in 366BC.

The Hippocratic Oath stands out among the great doctor's 59 works as a masterpiece of ethical greatness, his immortal legacy to doctors all over the world. He had many successors, such as Apollonides, Dexippos, Drakon, Praxagoras, etc.
Under the Ptolemies, successors of Alexander the Great, Kos developed an flourishing culture during the Hellenistic period and established a powerful federation with the neighbouring islandof Kalymnos.
There were many distinguished names in the artistic and intellectual life of the island, including the great painter Apelles, the philosopher end historian Euemerus, the founder of the Alexandrine elegy Philetas, the bucolic poet Theocritus who wrote the "Idylls", end the realist poet Herondas.
For a while during the Roman period, the island acquired the right to be free and autonornous, and was favoured by many emperors. An important public figure of the lst century A.D. was the Koan doctor Gaius Stertinius Xenophon who lived in the court of the emperor Claudius in Rome. The material achievements of the Koans throughout antiquity and prior to Roman rule were considerable. They traded in grains, grapes, wine, perfumes and superb purple silk fabrics.

Indeed, the Koans are attributed with inventing the weaving of wool.
The island witnessed economic and artistic prosperity up to the 5th end 6th centuries A.D., as can be seen in the great number of its early Christian basilicas. During the same period lived the last Koan poet end scholar of antiquity, Damochares, who settled in Constantinople.
On 3 October 1943, German troops occupied Kos. There ware civilian casualties from the bombing. The British took over the island in May of 1945, and in the following year, the victorious Alliedpowers decided to cede the Dodecanese to Greece. Thus in 1947, Kos once again became officially Greek.