The caldera island — white-cube villages on the rim of a Bronze Age volcano, Assyrtiko wine from pumice soil, and fava from the oldest continuous pea crop in Europe
Santorini (Thira) is the most visually dramatic of the Greek islands — a crescent of volcanic cliff rising from the Aegean Sea, the rim of a massive caldera formed by one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history (the Minoan eruption, around 1627 BCE), with the white cubic villages of Oia, Fira, and Imerovigli perched on the edge of cliffs 300m above the sea. The views across the flooded caldera to the active Nea Kameni volcanic island below, especially at sunset from Oia, are among the most photographed in the world — justifiably, because the combination of the white and blue archit…
The Minoan eruption of Thira (c.1627 BCE) is one of the largest volcanic events in recorded history — the caldera collapsed into the sea, creating the crescent shape of modern Santorini and sending a tsunami across the eastern Mediterranean that may have contributed to the decline of the Minoan civilisation on Crete. The Akrotiri settlement on Santorini's southern tip was a wealthy Minoan Bronze Age town preserved under volcanic ash for 3,500 years (discovered 1967) — its multi-storey buildings, fresco-painted walls, and sophisticated drainage system are among the best-preserved Bronze Age re…