21 January 2012

A cemetery in Rhodes (city), Rhodes, Greece

(1) "Nekrotapheion", today's Greek word for cemetery, it seems. And it make sense!

(2) The entrance of the cemetery, at the backside.

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(4) Cemetery chapel.

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(29) Have you noticed that while the animal you most likely are going to meet at a North European cemetery is a squirrel, the cemeteries in the Mediterranean region are usually swarmed by cats? I will come back to this when I some time in a not too distant future publish photos of a cemetery I once visited in Istanbul, Turkey. Anyway, this particular cat was actually resting inside the shovel when I discovered it. But unfortunately as soon as I took up my camera it came out to meet me.

(30) This cat, on the other hand, was not a happy sight, as one of its eyes had a running sore. Not a cat I wanted to have too close to my daughter, who was sitting in her pram, so I walked away soon after the encounter, but of course it started to follow me! Scary cat!

I try to visit cemeteries whenever or wherever I travel, but at a place like Rhodes with so many historical places it would normally not be included in my "things to do list". The Acropolis of Rhodes would be a better idea. However, my daughter, almost 15 months old at the time, needed her afternoon nap, so I was worried that the tourist-crowded Acropolis would disturb her sleep and thus I decided to go to the cemetery instead. Getting my daughter to sleep turned out to be a greater challenge than anticipated. She usually falls asleep with one of her thumbs in her mouth, but in addition she needs her small comfort blanket. She managed to lose it or throw it away not many metres outside the walls of the old town, but I didn't discoved it before it was too late. So she didn't sleep at all during my cemetery visit, but as soon as I had found the blanket again on our way back to the old town, she entered dreamland only after a minute or two! The pram was not easy to manouvre at the cemetery because the graves were so close to eachother that they were almost above eachother, so I couldn't get all the shots I would have liked, as I wouldn't leave the pram in order to get closer to the objects.

Anyway, I am not sure if there are more than one cemetery in Rhodes (and now I am mostly thinking about the new city) or if the cemetery I visited had a particular name, hence the subject title "A cemetery in Rhodes ...". The word "cemetery" comes from Greek originally and means "sleeping place", but it seems that the word used today is "Νεκροταφείο" ("Nekrotapheio"). It's all Greek to me, anyway (sorry, I just couldn't resist!).

According to the map I had got, the cemetery was supposed to be quite close to the sea, but the cemetery I found was close to a stadium, but certainly not to the sea. And yes, I am quite good with reading maps, actually! So it is possible that I stumbled over another cemetery than the one I had planned to visit. Will I ever find out? Anyway, it was an interesting cemetery to visit, even if I am not mastering the Greek words too well and even though my daughter's restlessness cut the visit short!

(All the photos were taken on Friday 7 October 2012.)

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2 comments:

  1. I have a question please. As a young girl my parents and I lived on Rhodes for about three years. My father was in the US military. I seem to remember visiting a cemetery with them that had two large statues guarding the entrance and in my memory they wore Nazi unifor. My parents are gone now and I never remembered to ask them about this. Do you know of any such place on your travels? Thanks.

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  2. Thanks for your message. I can't answer your question, but hope someone else can!

    DTH

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