Island of Santorini
The island of Santorini, also known as Thira, is located in the southern Aegean sea. A volcanic island, it is the largest of the Santorini archipelago, in the Cyclades island group. It houses the municipality of Thira and the Oia community, featuring a naval Maritime Museum.
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Geologically a caldera, an island resulting from a former volcanic explosion, Santorini embraces a lagoon with high steep cliffs, sloping towards the sea on 3 sides. The lagoon houses the Santorini harbor, and the town of immaculate white Mediterranean buildings is scattered on the olivine rocks, fringed by smooth and shallow beaches with sand and pebbles of various geological layers, giving its name to the beach: red beach, black beach, white beach.
The island of Santorini has been a settlement of the Minoan civilization, the great Akrotiri archaeological site being an evidence thereof. Superb artifacts, pottery, furniture and frescoes, such as the Ship procession, the Fisherman, the Woman with Papyrus, the Blue Monkeys and the mural depiction of a town were excavated in 3 story buildings with advanced drainage systems, at Akrotiri. These pieces are all that remains from the enigmatic lives and fates of the Minoan civilization of Santorini. They can be contemplated at the new Museum on Santorini, the Archaeological Museum in Thira and the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
Also, these mysterious remains of a civilization that has fled the disaster on their home island and disappeared without a trace is considered by historians to be the inspiration behind Plato’s story of Atlantis.
Aside from geology and archaeology, Santorini is famous for its wine, Assysrtiko, its white eggplants and for its Mediterranean, even Cycladic buildings. They are low-lying cubic houses of local stone, lime washed with volcanic ashes and whitewashed, with hyposkapha, extensions dug sideways or downwards into the pumice rocks, and wide arched galleries.
Santorini offers colored beaches and hotels carved high into the cliff sides. Another special features are the white orthodox churches, with Byzantine domes and curves, many with electric blue domes seemingly reflecting the bright blue of the bay.
The town of Oia is also unique for its blend of Venetian houses with the local small incave village homes, dug into the volcanic rock, as well as for its grandiose sunset.
