Tourist information - Santorini
Santorini would be the last of one's Cyclades islands towards the south. The closest islands are Ios, Folegandros, Sikinos to the North, Anafi and Amorgos to the East and Crete to the South.
We make reference to Santorini as one, but actually is a complex of five islands. Santorini (Thira) is the main island and around it Thirasia and Aspronisi (areas of the ancient Stroggili) and the two volcanic islands Palea Kameni and Nea Kameni.
It was one island named Stroggili (circle in Greek) until about 1645 BC, when the volcano, in the midst of the island, erupted and Caldera was given birth to. The two volcanic islands appeared much later from various eruptions starting 157 BC and the last one to be in the 20th century (1950).
Several reasons made Santorini famous worldwide and more or less we all have seen a picture of Santorini (it's that picture the travel agency used for Greece). There is a discussion of the link between Thira and ancient Atlantis. Furthermore, Jules Verne made Santorini famous with its books "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" and "The mysterious island" where captain Nemo, together with his crew, watched the volcano eruption. He was one of the visitors and scientists that stumbled on Thira during the eruptions of 1866 - 1870 and wrote the recognized book right after it. It's really the mysterious island, the volcano rules, the caldera view is an extremely breathtaking one on the globe!
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