"Santorini – A photographer’s dream " a Santorini Island Travel Page by alucas

View from Oia, looking north to the Cyclades.


When we used to go to Greece years ago, Santorini was high on my wish-list. But we never actually made it, and turned to Italy and Spain instead. So when Santorini was proposed as the venue for Euromeet 2007, we very soon agreed that we were going to go.

You can’t walk very far in Santorini without giving in to the urge to take a photo of something. Wherever you go around the rim of the Caldera there are wonderful views, and you are bound to end up with hundreds of photos. I have tried to share as many as possible in my pages, so do have a look at my Fira, Oia, Thirasia and Pirgos pages too, as some of the best are hidden away in the travelogues.

Santorini Island is a crescent around three sides of the basin known as the Caldera. On the west side there is the island of Thirassia, and in the middle lie the two youngsters, Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni. Seen from a boat, the cliffs rise up around you to more than 300 feet in Oia, 600 feet in Fira, and more than 1000 it Imerovigli. The houses along the cliff edge look like a dusting of snow from a distance.

Here is some geological information that I have pulled together from various sources.

Santorini lies on a fault in the earth’s crust called the Kameni Line, and this fault passes right across the Caldera, passing through Akrotiri, Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni. Most of the volcanic activity that formed Santorini occurred on this line. Eruptions are believed to have taken place up to two million years ago, and have continued right up to the last eruption in 1950. A number of these are believed to be large explosive eruptions leading to the collapse of the magma chamber and the formation of the Caldera. The most significant of these was the massive eruption in 1645 BC which is believed to have created the tidal wave that destroyed the Minoan civilisation in Crete, and formed the Caldera that we see today. Eruptions have continued at infrequent intervals since then, and new islands have been formed. Palea Kameni is believed to have first appeared around 46 AD, and Nea Kameni in 1707. The last eruption in 1950 was relatively minor. However in 1956 there was a massive earthquake affecting much of Greece and Santorini was badly hit. Large parts of the towns were destroyed, including the port at Oia, and many of the buildings you see today have been rebuilt since.