There is a truly unbelievable beauty and rich history hidden underneath the touristy views of Santorini cluttering your social media feeds every summer.
zetazzed 8 hours ago [-]
The museum of prehistoric Thera is also worth a visit if you make it there! It is fairly small but contains some incredibly well-preserved artifacts. The frescoes are stunning.
I found Fira (nearby "large" town on Santorini, very close to the sites) miserably crowded, but seeing Thera was very cool. This is all about 1500 years older than Pompeii, so a very different experience IMO.
vtjeng 6 hours ago [-]
[dead]
ashishb 2 hours ago [-]
Everyone goes for the blue domes.
The real historic sites can be seen via
- taking a boat tour to the dead volcano "Caldera"
- visiting the Prehistoric ruins at Akrotiri (south side of the island)
The weirdest thing about this island is that everything is built on a caldera rim, much higher than sea level. Extremely unusual for an island.
> The weirdest thing about this island is that everything is built on a caldera rim, much higher than sea level. Extremely unusual for an island.
Most Greek islands have their Chora, the capital village, on a high point of the island. This was for defense reasons against pirates and other potential attackers.
ashishb 1 hours ago [-]
> Most Greek islands have their Chora, the capital village, on a high point of the island.
Well, others are mostly at sea level, with only some high points.
Thira has very little land at sea level.
4 hours ago [-]
ETH_start 1 hours ago [-]
This is likely the inspiration for the myth of Atlantis.
Minoan fresco is so unique. They were truly a civilization unto themselves. I wonder how much they had in common with the rest of "Old Europe" (pre-Indo European farmers)
natroniks 6 hours ago [-]
They are magnificent! I'd guess their civilization was influenced by the Ancient Near East as well as Old Europe. Hybrid creatures, women flanked by big cats, priestly figures holding serpents, all Minoan iconography with corrolaries in Egypy and the Levant. How I wish we had their myths, their histories.
devilfileprong 19 minutes ago [-]
[dead]
1 hours ago [-]
Rendered at 10:42:19 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I found Fira (nearby "large" town on Santorini, very close to the sites) miserably crowded, but seeing Thera was very cool. This is all about 1500 years older than Pompeii, so a very different experience IMO.
The real historic sites can be seen via
The weirdest thing about this island is that everything is built on a caldera rim, much higher than sea level. Extremely unusual for an island.https://ashishb.net/travel/greece/santorini/
Most Greek islands have their Chora, the capital village, on a high point of the island. This was for defense reasons against pirates and other potential attackers.
Well, others are mostly at sea level, with only some high points. Thira has very little land at sea level.