Like the Beautiful Santorini Island?

The Beautiful Santorini Island or Thera has a fearful beauty. I mean beauty could really be fearful too even with pretty women (so take care), forget about lands that are made of other stuffs.

It is absolutely that Santorini is made of other stuffs. It appears in many of its recent features as an island that was made out of volcanic creation. That could be one of the stuffs of its fearful beauty.

This is a fact and it is not a Greek mythology in the Ancient Greek Culture, although the mythology has coloured the presence of Santorini, both in the scripts and in the scholarly and unscholarly written literature and drawn arts.

You will go through the facts and some of the mythology here, although this page is about concrete facts in this beautiful island. The links on the page and the links bellow the comment form complete a reading that I hope will be enjoyable.

At that time before million years, the island was circular and the people of that time called it by the name Strongili. The volcano reshaped it to appear in a crescent like shape.

The people in the ancient times called it Calliste or Kalliste and the Beautiful Santorini Island got that name from the Haliad nymph of the island known as Kalliste. Here is the mythology, although the names reflect on realities.

Kalliste was the daughter of Triton and she was the goddess of the island. Triton himself was a merman (a creature half human and half a fish) and was the son of Poseidon the god of the sea and the goddess Amphitrite.

Amphitrite herself was the daughter of Oceanus from his sister Tethys, although another source says it was the daughter of Nereus and Doris.

Another story says that Euphemus, the son of Poseidon named the island Calliste, which means the most beautiful or Strongyli. The name Thera refers to Theras, the last descendent of Oedipus who went that time to settle on the Beautiful Santorini Island.

Thira or Thera was once one the Nereids until she married Poseidon. However, Nereus was the god of the sea and the Nereids were his daughters.

In regards to the Nereids, this legend was well ingredient of the legend of the Genies' girls in the folkloric tales of the Sudanese grand moms and grand dads, before the religious military regimes destroyed the origins of the cultures. See Sudan here.

The Greek legend gives some of these gods and goddesses an amphibious status not only in regards to the Beautiful Santorini Island but in other parts of Greece, including the Aegean Greek Islands as the Greek mythology goes.

Beyond the legend in Mount Olympus or Olympia, you will find the Beautiful Santorini Island or Thera with its fearful beauty stands on the south of the Cyclades group of island on the Aegean Sea, among the few populated islands in the group.

It lies about 200 kilometres southeast of the mainland of Greece covering 96 square kilometres in the area out of 184 square kilometres within the range of the separated islets and the area the sea filled by water when the earthquake happened.

The eruption of the volcano in 1650 caused the centre of the island to sink, the see filled the empty area, strong floods swept the area until Crete and the western coasts in the Middle East and the high cliffs of the Caldera (volcano cauldron) in the Beautiful Santorini Island remained as evidence of that catastrophe.

The volcano was active again in the Beautiful Santorini Island in the Aegean Sea and it happened many times until recently. It separated Thirasia from the main land in 236 BC and the eruption created the islet of Palia Kameni in 197 BC.

There was an ancient port called Eleusis and that port has disappeared when the south coast in the Beautiful Santorini Island collapsed in 1570. After the eruption in 1707, Nea Kameni islet appeared in the area.

The archaeologists speculated that the earthquake destroyed the structure of Akrotiri and the Minoan civilization in the Beautiful Santorini Island.

The Minoan civilization, called also the Bronze Age civilization, prospered during the 27th century BC until the 15th century in Crete. The Minoans travelled also that time to resettle in Thera and Anatolia from the 2700 BC until 1600.

However, the Mycenaean civilization succeeded it to dominate from 1600 BC until 1200 BC. It took its name from Mycenae in the northeastern area of Argolis in southern Greece.

The features the volcano made are not only in the separated islets but also in the geological and chemical changes that appear on the shape of the land, the lava rocks it made and the warm sulfur water of the sea.

The eruption events motivated artists and writers to imagine more mythical works claiming the island was in the part of that lost continent know as Atlantis.

Because of this series of drama, the Beautiful Santorini Island may not be the best tourists' destination for you unless you are courage and love to experience some kinds of that terrific beauty.

Read more about the Greek Santorini Island, the Beautiful Santorini Beaches, the Beautiful Santorini Towns and Santorini Hotels here.

Here are some relevant links and useful resources:

Enjoy Beautiful Greek Memories in Beautiful Imbros Island, Beautiful Naxos Beaches, Beautiful Naxos Island, Beautiful Naxos Villages, Beautiful Picture Contest, Beautiful Rhodes Beaches, Beautiful Rhodes Island, Beautiful Syros Island, Greek Mykonos Island and Greek Rhodes Island.

Useful Resources

Legacy of Ancient Civilizations Thera/Santorini

If you look at a map of Greece, you will see that nearly a quarter of its territory consists of dozens and dozens of islands in the Aegean Sea. In ancient times, one of these islands was Thera. It would not be especially notable -- except for one thing.

This island was the site of one of the most massive volcanic eruptions in history. After it happened, Thera was no longer one island, but three -- one of which is today known as the Beautiful Santorini Island.

Thera/Santorini

Here is an ancient culture that tells us a great story not only about human endeavor, but also about the power of nature to affect, and even destroy, a civilization. As splendid as the world of Thera was, it had the misfortune to arise in the shadow of one of Earth's mightiest volcanoes. The fate of Thera so impressed the ancients that it may have given rise to one of humanity's most enduring myths -- the lost world of Atlantis.

The Volcanic Eruption on Santorini, 1650 BCE (Robbie Readers)

More than 3,500 years ago, people on the Greek island of Calliste had a very good life. They enjoyed lots of sunshine, had plenty of food, and lived in large homes.

They even had running water and flush toilets. There was only one problem: Calliste was actually a volcano. Around 1650 BCE, the volcano erupted, blowing out the center of the island and creating a large bay.

What was left of Calliste was buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash. Though the island was deserted for many years, people eventually returned. Several centuries ago, it was renamed Santorini. The island reclaimed its beauty and allure, but the volcano below continues to reshape this little plot of land in the Mediterranean Sea.

Thera in the Bronze Age

The modern excavations at Akrotiri, on the Greek island of Thera (also known as Santorini), have provided students of antiquity with a unique opportunity to examine the civilization of the Aegean Bronze Age (3000-1100 BC) and the role of Thera within it.

Thera in the Bronze Age presents a detailed study of the geography, history, and culture of a vibrant society that met its end in a catastrophic volcanic eruption which, ironically, preserved the city at Akrotiri just as it was in its final moments.

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