Rhodes is magnificently preserved in parts as they were in the time of the Knights. Do it.
I was blown away visiting the museum in Heraklion. It is one thing to learn of these artifacts in school, but it is such a privilege to stand before them. I was enraptured.
I feel that way whenever I'm at any historical site. I try to imagine the people who were there, what they were experiencing, how they lived, what they accomplished and what they built.
Here's a recent example. We were driving through Oregon a couple weeks ago and, at a rest stop in Chiloquin, there was an historical marker for the Pacific Railroad Survey. A survey party stopped there August 20, 1855. They were searching for a practicable route from Sacramento, CA to the Columbia River. Now remember that California only got populated by Anglos starting in 1849, just six years prior. And the first commercial railroad was built in 1826. It was the Granite Railway in Massachusetts, only 29 years before this expedition. There weren't many people in the west and the government was already conducting four surveys for east-west transcontinental railway routes and a north-south route in California and Oregon.
That's amazing progress in a short period of time -- about the same amount of time for the introduction of the personal computer, internet, and mobile phones to go from first prototypes to broad commercial acceptance and widespread usage.
I was reading about the great expansion of the Phoenicians and their technologies and artworks. So many similarities to our recent past!
I haven't spent much time at ancient sites in Europe and hope to visit more. Thanks for the info and encouragement!