Attavyros ( el, Αττάβυρος) or Atavyros (Ατάβυρος) is the highest mountain on the island of
Rhodes
Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...
in the
Dodecanese
The Dodecanese (, ; el, Δωδεκάνησα, ''Dodekánisa'' , ) are a group of 15 larger plus 150 smaller Greek islands in the southeastern Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, off the coast of Turkey's Anatolia, of which 26 are inhabited ...
in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wi ...
. It rises to a height of 1,215 m. It lies to the south of the village of
Embonas.
In
Greek mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities o ...
Althaemenes
In Greek mythology, Althaemenes or Althemenes (Ancient Greek: Ἀλθαιμένης) was a Cretan prince as the only son of King Catreus of Crete. He was the brother of Apemosyne, Aerope and Clymene. Althaemenes mistakenly killed his father ther ...
founded an altar to
Zeus
Zeus or , , ; grc, Δῐός, ''Diós'', label= genitive Boeotian Aeolic and Laconian grc-dor, Δεύς, Deús ; grc, Δέος, ''Déos'', label= genitive el, Δίας, ''Días'' () is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek relig ...
Atabyrios on the mountain. He was said to have chosen the site as the only point on Rhodes from which his homeland of
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
could be seen. The remains of the sanctuary can be seen near the summit.
Gallery
File:Rhodes island aerial.jpg, Aerial view of Attavyros
File:Attavyros.JPG, Attavyros
File:ZeusTempelAtt.jpg, Temple of Zeus at the top of Attavyros
References
{{Reflist
Mountains of Greece
Rhodes
Mountains of the South Aegean
Landforms of Rhodes (regional unit)
Sacred mountains
Temples of Zeus
One-thousanders of Greece