Santorini

Santorini is a small island, located at the south end of the Cyclades island complex. Her name is officially Thera but Santorini is what the island is called most of the time. She is positioned between Ios and Anafi, 130 nautical miles from Piraeus and 70 nautical miles from Crete. She covers an area of 96 km2 and has a total coastline of 69 kilometres. There are almost 11.000 people living here, but in the winter the population drops to 6000.. The western coastline ends up brutally meeting the famous Santorini caldera. A big basin covering approximately 32 square miles, the depth going from 300 to 600 meters. At the western end of the caldera, we find the island of Therasia and an inhabitant island, Aspronissi. By taking a good look at those three islands we can easily distinguish a virtual borderline of what used to be there before the caldera was formed.

In a terrible eruption, 3.600 years ago,the Strongyli volcano collapsed,creating the huge cauldron of the caldera we see today. The Santorini island complex, the island of Thira, Thirasia and Aspronisi,are the fragments tha remained above the surface of the sea after the collapse,while the rest,the greatest portion of the island,dissapeared under the water. Not long after the caldera was formed, molten rock, viscous magma with few gases, again began to flow up in the center of it, solidifying in contact with the seawater and thus slowly building up a submarine volcanic structure which would eventually become the foundation of the Kameni islets. This activity was not recorded by the ancient historians, and was very likely not observed by the people then living on the island.

The island capital of Santorini, Fira clings to the edge of a cliff, which is, in fact, the rim of the crater. It is 900 feet above the landing port and about 800 broad, zigzagged steps up from the port. You either take the donkeys or mules up the winding steps or modern-day travellers prefer the cable car. Climbing the steps with a mule had been a tradition on Santorini for years, until 10 years ago when the cable car made its appearance. Fira is a comparatively modern town, with houses built mostly during the 19th century when the old Venetian capital at Skaros became untenable due to earthquakes. The architecture is a jumble of Cycladic and Venetian, side by side, the similarities between the two being the stark whiteness. The town's archaeological museum is crammed with finds from excavations at Akrotiri. But besides being so interesting archaeologically, Santorini is essentially a beauty spot, an island whose cliffs seem to glow under an exceptionally clear light all day, but which at sunset glow redly, evoking that vast explosion more than 3.000 years ago.

The traditional settlement of Ia is located on the northern tip of the island, high on the cliff-top. Ia hosts the most magnificent views on Santorini and a picturesque road, with cliffs on one side and sea on the other, leads to this attractive town. A square overlooks the sea and visitors are encouraged to observe a truly fantastic sunset well worth saving on film. Directly below is the beach of Ammoudi across the bay are the Burnt Islands. Ammoudi, accessible only by foot, is 214 steps below, and Armeni beach is 286 steps below. The architecture of Ia is typical Santorini with houses sunk deep into the volcanic soil, their whitewashed walls and blue domes sparkling in the sunlight. Ia today also hosts a cultural centre, a central art gallery and many other Greek art galleries.

Akrotiri is the best preserved of all the prehistoric settlements discovered in Aegean. Excavation of the site confirmed that the volcano had indeed erupted around 1500 BC , since the remains of the town were buried beneath a deep layer of volcanic ash. The prehistoric town of Akrotiri was the centre of a highly advanced civilisation which reached its zenith in about 1550 - 1500 BC (period known as Late Minoan IA). The area had been continuosly inhabited since the neolitic period until a tremendous volcanic eruption laid a shroud of pumice and ash over everything that the isladers had so painstakingly created. The architecture of the city is strongly Cycladic. The houses were two - or three - storeys high with many rooms. The most luxurios were costructed of dressed stone; the others were made of mud mixed with straw.