Lindos acropolis and St Paul's Bay

Lindos stacks three photographs on top of each other: the white village of flat-roofed captains' houses, the Hellenistic sanctuary columns on the acropolis rock above it, and — looking down the far side — St Paul's Bay, an almost perfectly enclosed ring of turquoise with a tiny white chapel at its edge.

Climb early. The path up through the village is donkey-width and fills by ten; at eight the lanes are empty, the light is kind, and the acropolis at opening time belongs to the first dozen visitors. From the top, the columns frame the sea in one direction and the bay's full horseshoe in the other — the down-look at St Paul's Bay is the island's most repeated frame for a reason.

The chapel at the bay hosts real weddings through the season; for photography the bay works best from above in the morning and at water level in the late afternoon, when the cliffs shade the beach and the water holds the light. Between village, acropolis and bay this is a half-day, not an hour.