Kos: the birthplace of Western medicine

The Asclepeion of Kos, a sanctuary dedicated to Asclepius, god of medicine, was the most important medical center of the ancient world, where Hippocrates taught and practiced his art.

A short walk from the port, the Hippocrates Plane Tree, according to tradition over two thousand years old, marks the place where the physician supposedly held his lessons.

Continuing on, you visit the Castle of the Knights of Saint John, a medieval fortress built at the port entrance with blocks recovered from ancient monuments.

Toward evening, the ruins of the ancient Agora, in the heart of the modern city, remind how important Kos was as a commercial and cultural center in antiquity.

The Hippocratic Oath, still symbolically taken by physicians worldwide today, arose directly from the teachings of the Greek physician who lived and trained on the island of Kos in the fifth century BCE.

The plane tree attributed to Hippocrates, though it cannot botanically be twenty-five hundred years old, remains a venerated symbol protected by metal supports to extend its life.