The green, low-lying, fertile island of Kos, is one of the 12 Dodecanese islands on the southeast Aegean Sea in Greece. The ‘father of modern medicine', Hippocrates (460-370BC) was born here, and is said to have taught his students under a plane tree, which can still be seen in Kos Town. Today, thanks to its sandy beaches, the island lives from mass tourism. The capital and main port, Kos Town, lies on the east end of the island. Filled with monuments dating back over 3,000 years, it has been occupied by the Romans, Ottoman Turks and Italians. There is a palm-lined seafront promenade, a large yachting marina, a cosmopolitan nightlife and good shopping. A short distance southeast of town, at Psalidi and Fokas, lie the island's most upmarket hotels. Southwest of Kos Town, on the south coast, Kardamena is the island's largest package resort. Once a peaceful fishing village with a long sand beach, since the early 1980s it has developed into a haven for British 18-30s, and is now crammed with English-style pubs and concrete apartment blocks. West of Kardamena, Kefalos is a peaceful, purpose-built resort overlooking a horseshoe bay with excellent beaches nearby. It grew up below the old village and its namesake, made up of whitewashed houses built into the hillside. On the north coast, the low-key resorts of Tingaki and Marmari are especially popular with windsurfers, while the salt marsh that separates them is a haven for migrating birds, including flamingos.