Lindos was one of the most important poleis in the island of Rhodes. It was situated on the eastern coast, a little to the north of a promontory of the same name. The area was in antiquity very productive in wine and figs. The eastern location of Rhodes made it a natural meeting place between the Greeks and the Phoenicians, and by the 8^th century BCE Lindos was a major trading centre.

In the Homeric "Catalogue of Ships", Lindos together with the two other Rhodian poleis, Ialysos and Kameiros, are mentioned among the Greek forces against Troy, with Lindos sending nine ships. The inhabitants of all these three cities were Dorians, forming the three Dorian tribes of the island. Lindos was a member of the Dorian Hexapolis (meaning six cities) in the south-west of Asia Minor.

In the 6^th century BCE, Lindos was ruled by Kleoboulos, one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Up until, 408 BCE, when the town of Rhodos was founded, Lindos was a powerful city-state and a formidable naval power, with several colonies in the Mediterranean. After the foundation of Rhodos, although Lindos lost its political importance, it never lost its cultural and religious one, mainly due to its two sanctuaries. One dedicated to Athena Lindia and the other to Herakles.

One prominent citizen of Lindos was the sculptor Chares who built the well-known Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Wonders of World.