Santorini History

Santorini has a great history, starting from the Bronze Age.  The large excavation at Akrotiri, has verified that there was a great civilization on the island.  The excavations which started in 1956 brought to light an ancient city very well preserved, which was entirely buried beneath a very thick layer of ash from the great eruption in 1625 as the latest studies have shown. 

Herodotus,  who speaks about the early history of Santorini, tells us that the island was initially called Strongyle, the Round One, from its shape, later Kallisti, the Fairest One, because of its beauty, and after the Lacedaemonians' arrival and the foundation of their colony, they gave the island the name of their king, Thera.  The name Santorini was given by the Crusaders after a small chapel of Agia Irene (Santa Irene).

The Volcano

The last huge eruption of the volcano was 3.600 years ago, in the late bronze age. Millions cubic meters of ash and pumice were blown to a height of up to 36 km above the island. The removal of such a large volume of magma caused the volcano to collapse, producing a caldera. Ash fell over a large area in the eastern Mediterranean and Turkey.This ash buried the ancient city at Akrotiri and is feeding the myth of lost Atlantis.The Kameni Islands, Palea and Nea Kameni,  formed after the caldera. Eleven eruptions since 197 B.C. have made the two islands. The most recent eruption at Santorini was in 1950 on Nea Kameni, the northern island. The eruption was phreatic and lasted less than a month. It constructed a dome and produced lava flows..

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