The cliff from the rim
Three hundred metres to dark blue water โ from every village.
The island itself is **the rim of a volcano**, and that explains everything you see on it. Santorini is not an ordinary island but what remains of a volcanic mountain that erupted and collapsed into itself, so that its centre sank beneath the sea and the rim was left as an arc. The eruption โ known as the **Minoan eruption** and dated to around the seventeenth or sixteenth century BC โ was among the largest volcanic events in known human history. It threw out an enormous volume of rock and ash and generated **tsunami** that struck the coasts of Crete a hundred kilometres away. Many researchers connect it with the decline of the **Minoan civilisation**, though the link is still debated. Others have tied it to the legend of **Atlantis** โ speculation for which there is no evidence. What you see today: a **cliff** rising some three hundred metres above deep dark blue water, white villages hung along its edge, and in the middle of the bay the islets of **Nea Kameni** and **Palea Kameni** โ new volcanic domes, still growing. โ The volcano is **active** and continuously monitored, though its last minor eruption was in 1950.
Three hundred metres to dark blue water โ from every village.
A volcanic dome in mid-bay, reached by boat.
White, red and black bands in the cliff recording the eruption.
**Active but monitored, and in practice no danger to a visitor.** The last eruption was in **1950** and was minor, confined to Nea Kameni. The volcano is under **continuous scientific monitoring** โ seismometers, ground deformation and gas measurement โ and any unrest would be noticed months rather than days ahead. โ The real hazard to a visitor is not the volcano but **the cliff itself**: edges are unfenced in many places, the volcanic rock is friable and crumbles at the lip, and the wind is strong. Stay on the paths, and don't sit on the edge for a photograph.
**Oia is crowded to the point of spoiling it** at peak times: thousands standing shoulder to shoulder on the steps and the castle from an hour before sunset. The alternatives are genuinely better: **Imerovigli** โ the highest point on the rim, the "balcony of the Aegean", where the sunset is complete and the crowd a fraction; **Fira** along the rim path south of the centre; **Pyrgos** inland on its hill, where you watch the sun go down over the whole island with the caldera behind it; and the **Profitis Ilias monastery**, the island's highest point. โ If you insist on Oia: arrive at least an hour and a half early.
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Santorini Caldera, Thira, Greece