greece, 2007
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Santorini
Santorini is named after a saint. Like many other places in Greece, it also has a more formal name: Thira. Before the Hellenistic Greeks
arrived on Thira there were other civilizations here, most prominently the Minoans. Minoan society was very advanced, and was centered on
the island of Crete. Santorini had Minoan settlements on it over 3,600 years ago, and they built some rather nice cities. Then the Minoan civilization
fell around 1600 BC. The eruption of Santorini is generally blamed for this.
Santorini is a beautiful but explosive place. It's actually an active volcano, and throughout its history the shape of the island has changed as
large sections of it have fallen into the sea as a result of earthquakes or large eruptions. The volcano also occasionally makes new land. It's a vaguely
ring-shaped island with an area of open sea in the middle that corresponds to the volcano's caldera.
This is a satellite view of the island, with its distinctive ring shape. The water-filled basin is the caldera, with two volcanic islands. Click
for a larger image with labels. (Public domain photo courtesy of NASA.)
This is a nice wide view of it from the town of Fira, which is on the western part of the ring. In the distance to the left is the south part of the
island's outer ring. To the right is an island called Thirasia, which was once the north part of the ring before an earthquake caused the linking land
to collapse. In the middle, the bleak hill rising from the sea is the land that the volcano has been generating for the past couple millennia.
Despite the danger, people seem to enjoy the place, and it's very popular with the tourists, especially (we noticed) Americans from the South, who
tend to visit the island from the cruise ships we saw steaming in and out of the caldera almost constantly. These cruise ships are docked at the new
port, which is in the caldera.
Their odds of being killed in a massive volcanic eruption are relatively small since, as I mentioned, the last big eruption was around 1600 BC. Still,
the results of that eruption are sobering. It blew apart the center of the island, burying the Minoan town in ash and debris. Rocks hurtled through the air,
some landing as far away as Greenland, and even more significantly, a tsunami sped through the Aegean, inundating other islands like Crete. Evidence of this
destruction is to be found in many Minoan ruins, which bear clear signs of rapid flooding that coincided with Santorini's blast.
Starting in the late 1960s, archaeologists have been uncovering the Minoan town of Ancient Thira (Akrotiri), which is on the south coast. The
finds there have been astounding: we now know that the Minoans had three-story buildings, flushing toilets, and both hot and cold running water (many of
their pipes run in pairs). A lot of artifacts have been uncovered, as well as some wonderful frescos, but human remains and jewelry have been scarce,
indicating that earthquakes preceding the eruption caused most people to pack up and leave. The Museum of Ancient Thira was a highlight of our trip, and
is highly recommended if you are in Santorini. Sadly, the actual site of Ancient Thira is currently closed to the public.
This is looking from Fira, where we stayed, away from the caldera toward a distant island. Santorini is in an archipelago called the Cyclades, which are
centered around the sacred island of Delos (about which more on the
Mykonos page). As you can see, we encountered beautiful weather.
This is looking north from the lovely town of Fira. Fira has wonderful views of the caldera.
In the distance you can see another town, Oia, which is on the north side of the caldera.
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The northern bit of the town.
Funny looking, isn't it? This looks like a mobile phone cell tower, poorly disguised as a pine tree. But these are real trees, and we saw them in many places
in Santorini.
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It's hard to emphasize how high up the town is from the caldera. The town sits on the edge of the caldera, with the water and cruise ships far below.
It's really breathtaking.
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A lot of restaurants and bars take full advantage of the views the town affords.
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In fact the whole town is designed to have a view.
That same view at night. Fira is pretty hopping well past sunset.
Speaking of sunsets, Fira gets good ones.
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We walked down to the harbor on the morning of our second day on the island.
We took the donkey path, which was smelly. Andrea almost passed out.
There was an easier way down, and we regretted not using it.
It's a long way down to the harbor.
We came to catch a tour boat, which would take us out to the volcano, across to the (now) disconnected island of Thirasia,
and finally to Oia.
While the views from above were spectacular, it was also very worth seeing the town from the boat down in the caldera. That zig-zagging
path down the cliff from the town is the smelly donkey path.
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Nea Kameni is the main volcano. It is also the "New" volcano, as it was first formed in the sixteenth century and has steadily grown larger.
The smaller island near it is Palea Kameni, which is closer to 2000 years old.
Looking back toward Fira across the caldera.
It's funny to think that all of the rocks on Nea Kameni are less than 300 years old.
The views are pretty ...
... but the place itself is as desolate as the surface of the moon. In some places there is a little vegetation, but generally it's dry and sulfuric, and the temperature of the
ground can get fairly hot. Andrea could feel the heat through her shoes.
After swimming in some warms springs (they were called "the hot springs" but the sea water that mixed with them was decidedly cold) we stopped on the island of Thirasia for lunch.
It was a nice place to relax, but we didn't bother to go up to the town because we were tired.
The path to the town.
Instead we saved our energy for hiking up to Oia, which is on the north side of the main island.
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The tour company arranged a bus back to Fira, so our tour boat left.
Oia is an artsy town with many little shops, and it's filled with the usual whitewashed cliffside buildings. Beautiful.
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In the 1950s Oia was hit by a massive earthquake, and some buildings are still damaged. Overall the town has recovered, however.
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A distinctive Greek windmill.
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These days Oia is one of the main places people like to view the sunset. Although we liked the sunset in Fira, Oia has great views of it as well. On clear nights (which means
most nights) people come to the west side of town and watch the show.
You can see some of the people here on the remains of a castle ...
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