With such spectacular views to be enjoyed all around me, I have to request fellow Travel Gumbo readers indulgence for coming back again to the views to be had looking out from the cliff top over Oia township in the Greek isle of Santorini.
Pristine whitwashed houses abound with dashes of sky-blue detail in their window shutters and domes. Here, on the the 600 foot cliff top, we are again looking out across the flooded volcanic caldera towards what was the other edge of the volcano’s mouth which was massively destroyed when it erupted some 3,600 years ago.
The eruption, possibly up to twice as large as previously believed, may have destroyed the Minoan civilization based on nearby Crete and also have inspired the myth of Atlantis. Researchers estimate that the volcano released 14 cubic miles (60 cubic kilometers) of magma—six times more than the infamous 1883 eruption of Krakatoa.
