Daily Kos ( /ˈkoʊs/) is an American political blog that publishes news and opinions from a progressive point of view. It functions as a discussion forum and group blog for a variety of netroots activists, whose efforts are primarily directed toward influencing and strengthening the Democratic Party. Additionally, the site features a participatory political encyclopedia ("DKosopedia"), glossaries, and other content.

Daily Kos was founded by Markos Moulitsas (Kos from the last syllable of his first name, his nickname while in the military) in 2002. In 2007, its parent company, Kos Media, LLC, began a fellowship program to help fund a new generation of progressive activists. About a dozen contributing editors provide content for the site, with three to four new editors being chosen from the Daily Kos community every year.

As of January 2010, Daily Kos had an average weekday traffic of hundreds of thousands of visits.^[2] It is financially sustained by advertising, with Google AdSense and Blogads. The ads focus mostly on activist causes, media, and political candidates. Members can also purchase an ad-free subscription to the site if they want.

The website ran on the Scoop content management system until 2011 when it moved to its own custom content management system referred to as "DK 4.0". In 2009, Time magazine listed the Daily Kos in its "Most Overrated Blogs" section.^[3] Despite the listing, Time magazine readers named the Daily Kos the second best blog.^[4]

Content[link]

This section requires expansion.

Moulitsas and a small group of select contributors post directly to the front page; other users can post "diaries", the titles of which appear on the front page in reverse chronological order, with special attention and longer display time for those diaries highly recommended by other users. The other major source of content is the comments posted in response to front page entries and diaries. Comments for popular or controversial diaries or front page articles can run into the thousands.

Front page entries and diaries often take the form of a news story from an outside source interspersed with commentary from the author of the diary or post. Sometimes these stories contain a request for action from other members of the community, such as to get involved with a particular campaign, give money to a candidate or contact an elected official about an issue. Some front page entries are called "open threads", which encourage people to post comments on any issue. One of the versions of these open threads are "live threads" of commentary on important events happening in real time, such as debates or elections.

Administrators have the ability to edit or delete diaries, though this is done rarely. "Trusted users" have the ability to recommend or hide responses posted by ordinary members whose comments they deem solely disruptive. Less than 0.01% of comments are hidden.

Daily Kos had previously partnered with Research 2000 to produce nonpartisan polling for presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races across the country. In June 2010, Daily Kos terminated the relationship after finding their data showed statistical anomalies consistent with deliberate falsification^[5] and announced its intention to sue the polling firm.^[6][7]

On November 30, 2010, an agreement to a settlement began as lawyers for the Plaintiff filed a status report indicating that both parties were in "agreement as to the contours of a proper settlement but are still in the process of determining whether the execution of the proposed terms is feasible."^[8] In May 2011, the Huffington Post reported that the lawsuit had been settled with Research 2000 pollster Del Ali making payments to Daily Kos.^[9]

Contributors[link]

Prominent contributors[link]

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2008)

Numerous political figures use Daily Kos to publish frequent or occasional content, including consultants, candidates, and sitting members of Congress. Prominent posters include:

Contributing editors[link]

List encompasses so-called "front-pagers," both past and present.

• Angry Mouse (Kaili Joy Gray)
• BarbinMD (Barbara Morrill)
• brownsox (Arjun Jaikumar)
• DarkSyde (Steven Andrew)
• DavidNYC (David Nir)
• DemFromCT (Greg Dworkin)
• Devilstower (Mark Sumner)
• DHinMI (Dana Houle)
• georgia10 (Georgia Logothetis)
• hekebolos (Dante Atkins)
• Hunter (Michael Lazzaro)
• Jed L (Jed Lewison)
• Kagro X (David Waldman)
• mcjoan (Joan McCarter)
• Meteor Blades (Timothy Lange)
• MissLaura (Laura Clawson)
• Plutonium Page (Page van der Linden)
• Scout Finch (Jennifer Bruenjes)
• smintheus (Michael Clark)
• Steve Singiser
• SusanG (Susan Gardner)
• Trapper John (Jake McIntyre)
• Turkana (Laurence Lewis)

Guest bloggers[link]

Beginning in 2003, as his blog expanded to a community, Kos appointed four or five "guest bloggers" (also called "front page diarists," "contributing editors," "front-pagers," and simply "FPers") who are selected from the community and tasked with regular contributions on the front page (without needing to have their articles recommended or promoted).

• 2003: Billmon; Steve Soto; Steve Gilliard; RonK, Seattle
• 2004: Meteor Blades; DHinMI; Melanie; Trapper John; theoria; DemFromCT
• 2005: DavidNYC; kid oakland; Hunter; Armando; a gilas girl; Plutonium Page ^[47]
• 2006: georgia10; SusanG; mcjoan; DarkSyde; Superribbie (announced as a front-pager, but backed out the next day, citing time constraints) ^[48]
• 2007: BarbinMD; Kagro X; Devilstower; MissLaura
• 2008: brownsox; Scout Finch; smintheus; Jed L.
• 2009: Steve Singiser

Additionally, while on the promotional tour for Crashing the Gate, Kos turned over much of the day-to-day management to the 2006 guest bloggers. Emeritus guest bloggers have frequently retained some privileges depending on circumstances, but are not expected to post as often.

A front-page diarist known as "Armando" (Armando Lloréns-Sar)^[49][50] took a prominent role during Moulitsas' book hiatus in 2005 and was well known for his foreign policy and legal analysis. He also had his own political blogging website, called Swords Crossed, and was a guest political commentator in a wide variety of media outlets, including The Majority Report and Talking Points Memo Cafe. After his identity and details of his legal career were made widely known, he announced his departure from Daily Kos in June 2006, citing loss of anonymity.^[51] For 2 months, Armando would resurface periodically, and all of his comments were accompanied by a signature line stating that he would be returning to blogging in December 2006. Armando did indeed resurface, albeit under a user ID, "Big Tent Democrat," in September 2006. Armando "Big Tent Democrat" then left the Daily Kos site again in March 2007, citing "differences with the management."

Another contributor posts pseudonymously as "DarkSyde" on the front page of Daily Kos and a blog called Unscrewing the Inscrutable. He is best known as a science writer with specific attention paid to biology, astronomy, and political issues such as creationism or climate change. In particular, DarkSyde's Hurricane Katrina diaries were widely read during the storm and in the immediate aftermath. They are included in a collection of science articles in the e-book Kosmos: You Are Here, co-written with science fiction novelist Mark Sumner and illustrated by paleowildlife artist Carl Buell. All the contributors to Kosmos donated the proceeds to fund the YearlyKos convention.

"Bill in Portland Maine" (Bill Harnsberger)^[52] is a front page regular, best known for his recurring Cheers & Jeers feature, in which he bestows plaudits and brickbats on various newsmakers. Cheers & Jeers, which first appeared on Daily Kos on 9 December 2003, has evolved into a mini-community within the larger Daily Kos community, in which members post announcements about weddings, engagements, births, deaths, pet news, and other personal items, as well as sharing their own particular plaudits and brickbats. He lives with his partner Michael (known as "Common Sense Mainer"), a cat named Vegas, and his beloved chocolate lab, Molly. In the fall of 2007, Harnsberger lost his job, and the Daily Kos community collected $50,000 in pledges to allow him to continue to write Cheers & Jeers as a full-time paid position.

On June 2, 2007, Steve Gilliard, one of the blog's original contributors, died at the age of 42.

Campaign fundraising[link]

During the 2004 U.S. election campaign, Daily Kos readers gave approximately $500,000 in user donations to fifteen Democratic candidates denoted as most needing funds. The candidates were Tony Miller, Ben Konop, Daniel Mongiardo, Richard Romero, Samara Barend, Jeff Seemann, Nancy Farmer, Ginny Schrader, Jan Schneider, Lois Murphy, Jim Newberry, Brad Carson, Tony Knowles, Stan Matsunaka and Richard Morrison. All of these candidates lost. However, Moulitsas had stated that he was deliberately selecting candidates who were not receiving significant financial support from other sources; candidates who were expected to win — or even be competitive — were, by and large, already being funded by the DNC, DCCC, and other national and regional organizations.^{[citation needed]}

He also argued that the campaign was successful in that it forced several Republican incumbents to spend time and money defending "safe" seats that they had never had to defend before. For example, between Tom DeLay in Texas and Marilyn Musgrave in Colorado, Moulitsas calculates that the seed money provided by the blog's fundraising tied up well over ten times as much GOP money in return, and kept two of the GOP's most prolific fundraisers back home campaigning in their own districts for several weeks each, rather than roaming the country raising money for other candidates, as they had in past elections. At least two of his candidates came exceptionally close to winning what would have been significant upsets.

Daily Kos led a fundraising campaign again in the 2006 midterm election campaign in conjunction with MyDD and Swing State Project. This time around, they raised over 1.4 million dollars for 17 "Netroots Candidates," of which 8 were victorious: Jim Webb (VA-Sen), Jon Tester (MT-Sen), Tim Walz (MN-01), Joe Sestak (PA-07), Ciro Rodriguez (TX-23), Patrick Murphy (PA-08), Jerry McNerney (CA-11), Paul Hodes (NH-02). Several other Kos-endorsed candidates came within 3 percentage points of winning: Larry Kissell (NC-08), Gary Trauner (WY-AL), Linda Stender (NJ-07) and Darcy Burner (WA-08). The success of these candidates can be simultaneously considered a cause and effect of the Democratic wave in the 2006 election: fundraising on Daily Kos and other progressive / liberal blogs / websites contributed heavily to this and other races, boosting recognition of Democratic candidates across the board; on the other hand, the general anti-Bush, anti-incumbency sentiment across the country^{[citation needed]} helped boost these candidates and many others on the Democratic side.

YearlyKos convention[link]

In June 2006, members of Daily Kos organized the first ever political blogger convention, called YearlyKos, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event was attended by approximately 1000^[53] bloggers and featured appearances by prominent Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, California Senator Barbara Boxer, General Wesley Clark, Governors Mark Warner, Bill Richardson, Tom Vilsack and DNC Chair Howard Dean. The event was widely covered in the traditional media including Capitol Hill Blue,^[54] The Boston Globe^[55] and MSNBC.^[56] C-Span also carried portions of the convention.^[57]

The event was generally^[58] considered a success. YearlyKos 2007 took place in Chicago in August 2007, at which time it was announced that future conventions would be known as Netroots Nation.^[59] In 2008, the conference was held in Austin, Texas, with a surprise visit from Al Gore. The 2009 conference was held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from August 13–16. Pittsburgh was chosen in part due to its environmental merits, as the city is a leader in green building, with more square footage than any other city in the country.^[60] In addition, the city has a rich labor union history, which also was a factor in its selection.^[61]

Controversy[link]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (May 2009)

Dean campaign consultancy[link]

In 2003, Moulitsas was retained by the Howard Dean campaign as a technical advisor, an arrangement he disclosed on the site the next day.^[62] A year and a half later, when Daily Kos criticized Armstrong Williams for accepting money to promote George W. Bush's education agenda (including the No Child Left Behind Act), The Wall Street Journal reported on the payment to Moulitsas as well as a similar payment to Jerome Armstrong.[1] Zephyr Teachout said,

On Dean’s campaign, we paid Markos and Jerome Armstrong as consultants, largely in order to ensure that they said positive things about Dean. We paid them over twice as much as we paid two staffers of similar backgrounds, and they had several other clients. While they ended up also providing useful advice, the initial reason for our outreach was explicitly to buy their airtime. To be very clear, they never committed to supporting Dean for the payment — but it was very clearly, internally, our goal.

The Journal reporters have been criticized for equating the two events (Moulitsas and Armstrong were not journalists) and for "burying" deep in the article the information that Moulitsas had promptly — and prominently — disclosed the payment, and that Armstrong had stopped blogging entirely while working for Dean.^[63] Joe Trippi explained in an interview with Dave Winer that he wanted Kos so that Kos wouldn't go work for Clark or anyone else.^[64]

Meanwhile, Chris Suellentrop of Slate criticized Moulitsas not for taking money from the Dean campaign — something he told his readers about — but for working as a political consultant for candidates for whom he raised money on his site.^[65] Moulitsas refused to disclose the names of his clients, citing non-disclosure agreements signed with the candidates in question; on the other hand, neither his name nor that of Armstrong Zúniga LLC has been reported in the Federal Election Commission financial disclosure forms of any of the "Kos Dozen" candidates.

Armstrong Zúniga shut down after the 2004 political cycle, and Moulitsas has done no consulting since then.^{[citation needed]}

Fallujah comments[link]

Daily Kos attracted some controversy in April 2004 by publishing comments (written by Moulitsas) about the killings of four private military contractors in Fallujah, Iraq that many considered to be insensitive:

Let the people see what war is like. This isn’t an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush’s folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. [sic] They aren’t in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them.^[66]

John Kerry's official blog removed a link to his blog in response.^[67] In a subsequent article, Moulitsas attributed his remarks to anger that the Blackwater employees in Fallujah were given more attention than the five Marines who were killed on the same day, as well as to childhood memories of warfare in El Salvador.^[68]

Conflict between supporters of Obama and Clinton[link]

In early 2008, a major conflict erupted between Daily Kos users due to the rivalry between the two Democratic presidential candidates they supported: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.^[69] The New York Times reported,

On Friday, it got to be too much for Alegre, a diarist on the flagship liberal blog DailyKos, who frequently writes in support of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. "I've put up with the abuse and anger because I've always believed in what our online community has tried to accomplish in this world," Alegre wrote Friday evening. "No more." Objecting to the tone of attacks against Mrs. Clinton and her supporters on the blog, the diarist called for a "writers [sic] strike." "This is a strike - a walkout over unfair writing conditions at DailyKos. It does not mean that if conditions get better I won't 'work' at DailyKos again," Alegre wrote, promising to come back only "if we ever get to the point where we're engaging each other in discussion rather than facing off in shouting matches."^[70]

ABC News senior correspondent Jake Tapper described the disagreement:

This is how ugly things have gotten between supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- Clinton supporters are staging what they call a "strike" at the influential liberal website DailyKos. ... [T]hese diarists' boycott of DailyKos is indicative of the turmoil in which the Democratic party finds itself.^[69]

On March 17, 2008, Moulitsas stated that Senator Hillary Clinton did not stand for the principles behind Daily Kos and said Clinton "doesn't deserve fairness on this site." He equated the Democratic primary to a "civil war." His statement was precipitated by a 'strike' conducted by several prominent pro-Clinton bloggers, even though none of these posters were paid or in any way officially linked to the site. Moulitsas noted that if bloggers were dissatisfied, there were plenty of other websites at which to blog.^[70][71]

Related sites[link]

• Streetprophets.com is a "Daily Kos Community" focusing on the intersection of faith and politics, launched in 2005 by Moulitsas and Rev. Daniel Schultz (known by his username "pastordan"), a United Church of Christ minister from Wisconsin.

• MotherTalkers.com is another "Daily Kos Community" focusing on the intersection of motherhood and politics. The three mom bloggers, Elisa Batista, Erika Chavez and Gloria Riesgo, share their take on modern motherhood and the relevant news that affects parents everywhere.

• In April 2004, Daily Kos started dKosopedia.com, a political wiki, with the aim of compiling relevant information for netroots efforts, with its contents licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It applies open politics methods from George Lakoff's book Moral Politics. Some of its conventions are copied from Wikipedia and other projects in the GFDL corpus, including article names for neutral or non-controversial concepts like the names of elections. As of February 2008, dKosopedia had 13,962 articles. Notable DailyKos diaries are often adapted into dKosopedia articles. Compilation of timelines and profiles on political rivals are other major projects.

• Another site created is Congress Matters. Congress Matters is dedicated to "watching, learning, analyzing and discussing the daily activities of the Congress." The site is run by David Waldman (known by his username 'Kagro X').^[72]

See also[link]

• MyDD

References[link]

External links[link]

• Daily Kos
• dKosopedia - Daily Kos Wiki
• Congress Matters
• Mother Talkers
• YearlyKos - the annual convention of the DailyKos community
• Who is Georgia10? - profile from the Chicago Reader^{[dead link]}
• The Left, Online and Outraged, profile from the Washington Post
• Keynote Address delivered by Howard Dean at Yearly Kos on June 10, 2006
• KossacksNetworking - A social networking site for friends of DailyKos
• Farrell, Henry; Melissa Schwartzberg (2008-12-30). "Norms, Minorities, and Collective Choice Online". Ethics & International Affairs (Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs) 22 (4). http://www.cceia.org/resources/journal/22_4/essays/002.html. Retrieved 2009-02-03. 

Look up daily in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Daily is a short noun for a newspaper appearing each day or each weekday. Daily or The Daily may also refer to:

• The Daily, a US-based iPad newspaper from News Corporation
• The Daily of the University of Washington, using The Daily as its standardhead, a student newspaper
• Iveco Daily, a large van produced by Iveco
• Daily Township, Dixon County, Nebraska, USA

See also[link]

• Nightly (disambiguation)
• Daley (disambiguation)
• Daly (disambiguation)
• All pages beginning with "Daily"
• All pages beginning with "The Daily"

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Kos Κως
The harbour of Kos (city)
Location
Kos
Coordinates	36°51′N 27°14′E / 36.85°N 27.233°E / 36.85; 27.233Coordinates: 36°51′N 27°14′E / 36.85°N 27.233°E / 36.85; 27.233
Location within the region
Government
Country:	Greece
Region:	South Aegean
Regional unit:	Kos
Population statistics (as of 2001)
Municipality
- Population:	30,947
- Area:	287.2 km2 (111 sq mi)
- Density:	108 /km2 (279 /sq mi)
Municipal unit
- Population:	17,890
Other
Time zone:	EET/EEST (UTC+2/3)
Elevation (min-max):	0–843 m ­(0–2766 ft)
Postal code:	853 xx
Telephone:	22420
Auto:	ΚΧ, ΡΟ, PK
Website
www.kos.gr

Kos or Cos (Greek: Κως) is a Greek island in the south Sporades group of the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Gökova/Cos. The island measures 40 kilometres (25 mi) by 8 kilometres (5.0 mi), and is 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey, and the ancient region of Caria. The island forms a separate municipality within the Kos regional unit, which is part of the South Aegean region. The principal town of the island and seat of the municipality is Kos town.^[1] The island has a population of 30,947.

Name[link]

Throughout its history, the island has been known by the Greek, Kos. A person from Kos is called a "Koan" in English. The word is also a possessive, as in "Koan goods".^[2] Kos has also been called İstanköy by the Ottomans and Coo by the Italians and was formerly known as Stanchio in English.

Municipality[link]

The present municipality of Kos was created in 2011 with the merger of three municipalities, which became municipal units:^[1]

• Dikaios
• Irakleides
• Kos

History[link]

View of the Asclepeion.

Ruins of the Ancient Gymnasium.

View of the ancient Odeon.

In the Roman mythology, the island was visited by Hercules.^[3]

The island was originally colonised by the Carians. A contingent from Kos participated in the War of Troy^[4] The Dorians invaded it in the 11th century BC, establishing a Dorian colony with a large contingent of settlers from Epidaurus, whose Asclepius cult made their new home famous for its sanatoria. The other chief sources of the island's wealth lay in its wines and, in later days, in its silk manufacture.^[5]

Its early history–as part of the religious-political amphictyony that included Lindos, Kamiros, Ialysos, Cnidus and Halicarnassus, the Dorian Hexapolis (Greek for six cities),^[6]–is obscure. At the end of the 6th century, Kos fell under Achaemenid domination but rebelled after the Greek victory at Cape Mykale in 479. During the Greco-Persian Wars, when it twice expelled the Persians, it was ruled by tyrants, but as a rule it seems to have been under oligarchic government. In the 5th century, it joined the Delian League, and, after the revolt of Rhodes, it served as the chief Athenian station in the south-eastern Aegean (411–407). In 366 BC, a democracy was instituted. After helping to weaken Athenian power, in the Social War (357-355 BC), it fell for a few years to the king Mausolus of Caria. In 366 BC, the capital was transferred from Astypalaia to the newly built town of Kos, laid out in a Hippodamian grid.

Proximity to the east gave the island first access to imported silk thread. Aristotle (384 BC-322 BC) mentions silk weaving conducted by the women of the island.^[7] Silk production of garments was conducted in large factories by women slaves.^[8]

In the Hellenistic age, Kos attained the zenith of its prosperity. Its alliance was valued by the kings of Egypt, who used it as a naval outpost to oversee the Aegean. As a seat of learning, it arose as a provincial branch of the museum of Alexandria, and became a favorite resort for the education of the princes of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Among its most famous sons were the physician Hippocrates, the painter Apelles, the poets Philitas and, perhaps, Theocritus.

Kos was also known as Meropis and Nymphæa. Diodorus Siculus (xv. 76) and Strabo (xiv. 657) describe it as a well-fortified port. Its position gave it a high importance in Ægean trade; while the island itself was rich in wines of considerable fame (Pliny, xxxv. 46). Under Alexander III of Macedon and the Egyptian Ptolemies(from 336 B.C.) the town developed into one of the great centers in the Ægean; Josephus ("Ant." xiv. 7, § 2) quotes Strabo to the effect that Mithridates was sent to Kos to fetch the gold deposited there by the queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Herod is said to have provided an annual stipend for the benefit of prize-winners in the athletic games (Josephus, "B. J." i. 21, § 11), and a statue was erected there to his son Herod the Tetrarch ("C. I. G." 2502 ). Paul briefly visited here according to (Acts 21:1).

Except for occasional incursions by corsairs and some severe earthquakes, the island has rarely had its peace disturbed. Following the lead of its great neighbour, Rhodes, Kos generally displayed a friendly attitude toward the Romans; in 53 AD it was made a free city. Lucian (125–180) mentions their manufacture of semi-transparent light dresses, a fashion success.^[9]

The island was later conquered by the Venetians, who then sold it to the Knights Hospitaller of Rhodes (the Knights of St John) in 1315. Two hundred years later the Knights faced the threat of a Turkish invasion and abandoned the island to the Ottoman Empire in 1523. The Ottomans ruled Kos for 400 years until it was transferred to Italy in 1912. In World War II, the island was taken over by the Axis powers. It was occupied by Italian troops until the Italian surrender in 1943. British and German forces then clashed for control of the island in the Battle of Kos, in which the Germans were victorious. German troops occupied the island until 1945, when it became a protectorate of the United Kingdom, who ceded it to Greece in 1947.

The Market – Agora[link]

View of the municipal market.

The Market place of Kos was considered one of the biggest in the ancient world. It was the commercial and commanding centre at the heart of the ancient city. It was organized around a spacious rectangular yard 50 metres (160 ft) wide and 300 metres (980 ft) long. It began in the Northern area and ended up south on the central road (Decumanus) which went through the city. The northern side connected to the city wall towards the entrance to the harbour. Here there was a monumental entrance. On the eastern side there were shops. In the first half of the 2nd century BC, the building was extended toward the interior yard. The building was destroyed in an earthquake in 469 AD.

In the southern end of the Market, there was a round building with a Roman dome and a workshop which produced pigments including “Egyptian Blue”. Coins, treasures, and copper statues from Roman times were later uncovered by archeologists. In the western side excavations led to the findings of rooms with mosaic floors which showed beastfights, a theme quite popular in Kos.^[10]

Geography[link]

Map of Kos by Olfert Dapper, Amsterdam, 1702.

Map of Kos.

The island is part of a chain of mountains from which it became separated after earthquakes and subsidence that occurred in ancient times. These mountains include Kalymnos and Kappari which are separated by an underwater chasm c. 70 m (40 fathoms deep), as well as the volcano of Nisyros and the surrounding islands.

There is a wide variety of rocks in Kos which is related to its geographical formation. Prominent among these are the Quaternary layers in which the fossil remains of mammals such as horses, hippopotami and elephants have been found. The fossilised molar of an elephant of gigantic proportions was presented to the Paleontology Museum of the University of Athens.

The shores of Kos Island are washed by the waters of the Aegean Sea. Its coastline is 112 km long and is caressed by long immaculate beaches, leading to its main industry being tourism. Farming is the principal occupation of many of the island's inhabitants, with their main crops being grapes, almonds, figs, olives, and tomatoes, along with wheat and corn. Cos lettuce may be grown here, but the name is unrelated.

The main villages of Kos island are Kardamena, Kefalos, Tingaki, Antimachia, Mastihari, Marmari and Pyli. Smaller ones are Zia, Zipari, Platani, Lagoudi and Asfendiou.

Culture[link]

The Cathedral of the city of Kos.

Asfendiou Monastery of Zia.

Hippocrates' statue.

The main port and population centre on the island, also called Kos, is also the tourist and cultural centre, with whitewashed buildings including many hotels, restaurants and a small number of nightclubs forming the famous Kos town "barstreet". The town has a 14th century fortress at the entrance to its harbour, erected in 1315 by The Knights of Saint John of Rhodes.

The ancient physician Hippocrates is thought to have been born on Kos, and in the center of the town is the Plane Tree of Hippocrates, a dream temple where the physician is traditionally supposed to have taught. The limbs of the now elderly tree are supported by scaffolding. The small city is also home to the International Hippocratic Institute and the Hippocratic Museum dedicated to him. Near the Institute are the ruins of Asklepieion, where Herodicus taught Hippocrates medicine. Kardamena is a popular resort for young British holidaymakers and has a large number of bars and nightclubs.

Religion[link]

The main religion practiced is Greek Orthodoxy. Kos has one of the four cathedrals in the entire Dodecanese. There is also a Roman Catholic Church on the island as well as a Mosque catering to the Muslim community of Kos. The Synagogue is no longer used for religious ceremonies as the Jewish community of Kos was practically wiped out by the Nazis in World War II. It has, however, been restored and is maintained with all religious symbols intact and is now used by the Municipality of Kos for various events, mainly cultural.

Notable people[link]

• Hippocrates (5th century BC), "father of medicine".
• Apelles (4th century BC), painter.
• Michael Kefalianos, professional bodybuilder.
• Marika Papagika, early 20th century singer.
• Al Campanis, (20th century) Major League Baseball player and executive.
• Stergos Marinos, international footballer currently playing for Panathinaikos.

See also[link]

• List of volcanoes in Greece

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Kos

v t e Administrative division of the South Aegean Region Area: 5,286km² • Population: 302,686 (2001) • Capital: Ermoupoli Regional unit of Andros Andros Regional unit of Kalymnos Agathonisi • Astypalaia • Kalymnos • Leipsoi • Leros • Patmos Regional unit of Karpathos Karpathos • Kasos Regional unit of Kea-Kythnos Kea • Kythnos Regional unit of Kos Kos • Nisyros Regional unit of Milos Kimolos • Milos • Serifos • Sifnos Regional unit of Mykonos Mykonos Regional unit of Naxos Amorgos • Naxos and Lesser Cyclades Regional unit of Paros Antiparos • Paros Regional unit of Rhodes Chalki • Kastelorizo • Rhodes • Symi • Tilos Regional unit of Syros Syros-Ermoupoli Regional unit of Thira Anafi • Folegandros • Ios • Sikinos • Thira (Santorini) Regional unit of Tinos Tinos Regional governor: Ioannis Machairidis (el) • Website: www.pnai.gov.gr