RHODES TOWN divides into two unequal parts: the compact old walled city, and the New Town which sprawls around it in three directions. The latter dates from the Ottoman occupation, when Greek Orthodox natives - forbidden to dwell in the old city - founded several suburb villages or maria in the environs, which have since merged. Commercialization is predictably rampant in the walled town, and in the modern district of Neohi ("Niohi" in dialect), west of Mandhri yacht harbour; the few buildings which aren't hotels are souvenir shops, car-rental or travel agencies and bars - easily sixty to seventy in every category. The pointy bit of Neohi is surrounded by a continuous beach, complete with deckchairs, parasols and showers, particularly on the more sheltered east-facing section called li. At the northernmost point of the island an Aquarium (daily: April-Sept 9am-9pm; Oct-March 9am-4.30pm), officially the "Hydrobiological Institute", offers some diversion with its subterranean maze of seawater tanks. Upstairs is a less enthralling collection of half-rotten stuffed sharks, seals and even a whale. Some 200m southeast stand the Murad Reis mosque, an atmospherically neglected Muslim cemetery, and the equally dilapidated Villa Cleobolus, where Lawrence Durrell lived from 1945 to 1947.

Just a few paces northwest of this, the Italian-built Albergo delle Rose (Hotel Rodon) was refurbished and pressed into service in 1999 as the Casino of Rhodes , Greece's third largest, and unusually, open to locals as well as visitors.