Santorini

Ah yes, the most famous, popular, loved and visited Greek isle! Beautiful indeed, but we visited this island along with four large cruise ships – maybe 10,000 people! Our director rescheduled our tour to minimize conflict and crowds – helped a little.

Santorini is a flooded caldera (a collapsed volcanic crater) with a long arc of cliffs rising a thousand feet above sea level. The main town is Fira, with primary services and museum. The most scenic town is Oia (EE-ah) on the northern tip, with its chalk white houses and vivid domes.

The five islands that make up the Santorini archipelago are known as Thira, also the Greek name for the main island. Santorini is named after an early Christian cathedral. These were created by volcanic activity millions of years ago. The first major eruption occurred 21000 years ago and created the caldera seen today. The “Minoan Eruption” in 1630 BC was one of the largest in human history; residents must have had early warnings sand vacated the area since no skeletal remains have been found.

Akrotiri

We visited The Akrotiri Archaelogical site first. These ruins were buried under ash during the Min1630 BC eruption. Excavations started in the 1860’s, although less than 10% of the site has been uncovered. This site is about 1500 years older than Pompeii!