 |
 |
Santorini Island Guide
Santorini is a small, circular group of volcanic islands located in the Aegean Sea, about 200 km south-east of the Greek mainland. Santorini is also known by the name of the largest island, Thira or Thera. Santorini is the most Southern member of the Cyclades group of islands, and in 2001 had an estimated population of 13,600. The inhabitants are citizens of Greece and speak the Greek language.
Visiting Santorini? We have an up to date listing of Hotels in Santorini with last minute and late room booking discounts.
Santorini is the most active volcanic centre in the Aegean Arc, though what remains today is largely a caldera. The name Santorini was given to the island by the Venetians in the 13th century and is a reference to Saint Irene.
Current weather and 5 day, 10 day, 15 day forecast for Santorini, Greece.
The island was the site of one of the largest volcanic eruptions of the last several thousand years when it erupted approximately 3,500 years ago. The eruption left the large caldera surrounded by ash deposits hundreds of feet deep. south.
|
|
|
Santorini - your island guide
Santorini was annexed by Greece in 1912. Major settlements in Santorini include Fira (Phira), Oia, Emporio, Kamari, Imerovigli, Pyrgos and Therasia. Akrotiri is a major archaeological site with ruins from the Minoan era. The island has no rivers and water is scarce. Until the early nineties locals used to fill water tanks from the rain that fell on their roofs and courts, from small springs as well as by importing it from other areas of Greece. Nowadays, there is a desalination plant that provides running, yet nonpotable, water to most houses. The primary industry of Santorini is tourism. The pumice quarries have been closed since 1986 in order to preserve the caldera of Santorini.
Santorini is home to a small but flourishing wine industry, based on the indigenous grape variety, Assyrtiko. Assyrtiko vines are extremely old, as they are resistant to phylloxera and have consequently not needed to be replaced during the great phylloxera epidemic of the early 20th century. They are adopted to their native habitat by being planted far apart and their principal source of moisture is dew. They are trained in the shape of baskets, with the grapes hanging inside to protect them from the winds.
|
Santorini - Thera.
Fragmentary wall-paintings at Akrotiri lack the insistent mythological content familiar in both Greek and Christian decor. Instead, the Minoan frescoes depict "Saffron-Gatherers", who offer their crocus-stamens to a seated lady, perhaps a goddess; in another house two antelopes, painted with a kind of confident, flowing decorative, calligraphic line; the famous fresco of a fisherman with his double strings of fish strung by their gills; the flotilla of pleasure boats, accompanied by leaping dolphins, where ladies take their ease in the shade of light canopies.
The devastating volcanic eruption of Thira has become the most famous single event in the Aegean before the fall of Troy. The eruption would have caused a significant climate upset for the eastern Mediterranean region. It was one of the biggest volcanic eruptions on Earth in the last few thousand years.
| Images and Photographs of Santorini, Thera, Cyclades, Aegean |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Excavations on Santorini starting in 1967 at the site called Akrotiri under the late Prof. Spyridon Marinatos have made Thera the best-known "Minoan" site outside of the island of Crete. Only the southern tip of a large town has been uncovered, yet it has revealed complexes of multi-level buildings, streets and squares, with remains of walls standing as high as 8 meters, all entombed in the solidified ash of the famous eruption of Thera. The site was not a palace-complex such as are found in Crete, but its excellent masonry and fine wall-paintings show that this was no conglomeration of merchants' warehousing either. A loom-workshop suggests organized textile weaving for export.
|
