Description of the attraction
Kos is one of the most famous and popular Greek islands. Magnificent beaches, rich history and many interesting sights attract thousands of tourists from all over the world every year.
The name of such a legendary person as Hippocrates is inextricably linked with the island of Kos. It is Kos that is considered the birthplace of this great ancient Greek doctor, who went down in history as the “father of medicine”. The famous "Hippocratic Oath", which formulates the fundamental moral and ethical principles of a doctor's behavior, is not only a good old tradition, but also a kind of "code of honor" for every medical worker.
It is not surprising that one of the main attractions and symbol of the island of Kos is the so-called Platan of Hippocrates. A huge, centuries-old plane tree can be seen in the very heart of the capital of the island, on Platanov Square, near the entrance to the famous Castle of the Knights-Ioannites and the Turkish mosque, built in 1776 by order of the Ottoman Pasha Gazi Hasan. According to legend, the tree here was planted by Hippocrates himself, and under its spreading crown the great doctor worked and taught his students. True, the tree that you will see today is just a descendant of the legendary plane tree planted by the famous doctor, since Hippocrates still lived in the 5-4 centuries BC, and the age of the "modern tree" is only about 500 years.
The diameter of the spreading crown of the famous plane tree is about 12 m and it is the largest plane tree in Europe. Considering the venerable age of the tree and the severely damaged trunk, special metal structures were equipped to support the heavy branches.
The seeds and cuttings of this legendary tree have been distributed all over the world. His "descendants" today can be seen next to the US National Library of Medicine (Bethesda, Maryland), at the Scottish University of Glasgow, at Yale University, at the University of Sydney, etc.
