Santorini is what is left of a huge volcano that erupted probably 1645 BC and caused a lot of destruction in the Mediterranean area.  Today, it is a bustling tourist stop, visited by ocean liners nearly daily, as well as by many other types of ships and even has an airport.  We actually took a hydrofoil from Santorini to visit Mykonos, another wonderful tourist trap!  The hydrofoil was of Russian design, and was quite fast.

This photo is taken from the hydrofoil as it begins its trip from Thira to Mykonos.  I was quite taken by the red rocks on part of the steep cliffs beneath Thira.  The scale of the photo can be seen from the size of the buildings of Thira along the top.

At the center of the volcano is an island which is where the center of the lava dome is located.  As you can see from the map, much of the cone was blown away by the explosion in 1645 BC, leaving what remains today.  I believe there were additional eruptions since then, but you can always look that up yourself, if you are interested in the history of this interesting island.

If you love to shop and enjoy different cultures, and different foods, this is a wonderful place to visit.  A week is a minimum.  The people are extremely friendly, and there are plenty of places to walk, and climb down to the ocean.  If you visit via a tour ship, you will likely only get one afternoon to look around Thira, which I can tell you is not enough!  Better to plan your own trip than to assume a quick peek from your ocean-going hotel will suffice.  Likewise for Mykonos.

This photo was shot in 1997 using a Canon Elan camera and Kodak Royal Gold film.  It was scanned to PhotoCD via a Kodak scanner, and recovered with pcdMagic for post processing in Luminar.