Kos or Cos (
) (Greek: Κως; Turkish: İstanköy; Italian: Coo; formerly Stanchio in English) is a Greek island in the Dodecanese, next to the Gulf of Cos. It measures 40 km by 8 km, and is only 4 km from the coast of Bodrum, Turkey. The island has both fertile plains and infertile highlands. Population: 30,502.Belonging to the Dodecanese group (dodeca meaning twelve and nese/nisi meaning island) in the Ægean Sea near the Carian coast;Kos island 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 for the Ægean trade; while the island itself was rich in wines of considerable fame (Pliny, xxxv. 46). Under Alexander the Great 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 sent to Kos to fetch the gold deposited there by Queen Cleopatra. 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 ).