Lindus or Lindos was one of the most important towns in ancient Rhodes. It was situated on the eastern coast, a little to the north of a promontory bearing the same name. The district was in ancient times very productive in wine and figs, though otherwise it was very barren. In the Catalogue of Ships in the Iliad of Homer, Lindus, together with the two other Rhodian cities, Ialysus and Camirus, are said to have taken part in the war against Troy. Their inhabitants were Dorians, and formed the three Dorian tribes of the island, Lindus itself being one of the Doric Hexapolis in the south-west of Asia Minor. Previous to the year 408 BCE, when the city of Rhodes was built, Lindus, like the other cities, formed a little state by itself, but when Rhodes was founded, a great part of the population and the common government was transferred to the new city. Lindus, however, though it lost its political importance, still retained religious importance, for it contained two ancient and much revered sanctuaries – one of Athena, hence called the Lindian, and the other of Heracles.