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Welcome everyone to our beautiful island Santorini!
If you like to read how
the tour starts from Athinios port and get general
knowledge
of the island, please read below
For private tour
reservation please e mail us at
info@santoriniprivatetours.com
Athinios Port
is the new port of the island. Athinios Port is the only commercial port
of the island. Here is where all of the Greek - ferries come as well as
of the cruise-ship excursions. Athinios port is the only port which is
accessible by car and bus. The old port of the island is located at the
bottom of the islands capital, Fira. The cruise ships are docked at the
old port. The old port is accessible by three ways: by foot for the
exercise lovers, by donkey for the adventurous or by cable car, for
people like me... The cable car was built by a local, Nomikos, who
thought that it would be better and easier for the people to come up to
Fira using it. In this way he gives 20% of the income to the donkey's
owners and the rest of it are charity donations. The Northern most tip
of the island, Oia, has one of the most beautiful views on the island.
Coming up if
we look to our left, we can see the beautiful caldera. There are 4
islands in the Caldera. The islands farthest back with the houses on top
is
Thirassia or Small Thira. This island is inhabited by approx.
350 people and it has 2 villages. The village that is visible is the
capital of the island Manolas.
The island next to Thirassia that looks like a cupcake is the
island of Aspronisi or the White island. Aspronisi is an
inhabited island that is made up of 100% Pumice Stone. The island
closest to us is Nea Kameni or the New Burnt island. This is the
new volcano of Santorini and it is approx. 400 years old. There are 7
craters on Nea Kameni, the last crater, St. George is still active. When
I say active, I don't mean that if you visit the crater you will see
lava coming out, but you will see and smell the sulfur smoke that is
still being emitted by the volcano.
The small island in the back of Nea Kameni is Palea Kameni, or
the Old Burnt Island. This is the old crater of the island which is
no longer active. Palea Kameni was erected in 137 b.c. The biggest and
main crater is not on Nea Kameni, remember Nea Kameni is the New volcano
of the island. The original-first crater of the island is actually the
caldera or the gulf that we see next to us. This is the original and
still active crater of Santorini.
Thousands of years ago, Santorini had a different shape. The
island shape was actually circular until the devastating eruption of
1625 b.c., but let me start at the beginning of the islands history.
About two million years ago, the Aegean Sea use to be dry land that was
connected from Athens to Crete to Asia minor. Through many different
upheavals, the earth broke into pieces and water rushed in, to fill the
gaps. All that remained from the continent of Aegean was the tops of the
mountains. These tops of the mountains are the present islands of the
Aegean Sea.
Santorini,
2 million years ago, used to be three tiny islands or rocks, there was
no crater or volcano visible at the time. (I will be able to show you
these rocks in a little bit). As the volcanic rain which was located
near the 3 rocks became active, lava started pouring out of the volcanic
vein. Throughout the various eruptions lava filled the gaps and
connected the three small rocks into one large circular island. If we
look at the map, located at the front of the bus, we can still see the
outline of the original shape of the island. All we have to do is
connect the different islands. If we connect Oia, the northern tip, to
Thirassia, to Aspronisi, to Akrotiri, the Southern tip we can still see
the outline of the once circular island.
Santorini
was a circular island with a crater in the middle which was located
where the caldera is today. The crater reached 1,000m. (3,000ft) in
height. In 1625b.c. there were many devastating earthquakes and a
terrible eruption which followed. This great eruption was so large that
it caused the crater to collapse inward and break the central and
western parts of the island into pieces allowing water to rush in
creating the present day caldera. Caldera is a word often associated
with Santorini. It is a Spanish word which means "cauldron". More than
half of the island was destroyed. Santorini now occupies a total area of
72sq. kilometers. This is the size of our caldera 83sq. kilometers.
Santorini's caldera is one of the largest of the world.
The remainder
of the island was buried under 60-70 m of pumice stone and volcanic ash.
The explosion was so great that scientific research tells us that the
blast was heart in the Scandinavian countries and ash was found in
California, Greenland, the land, and Asia Minor. Remember that the
actual crater of Santorini is not Nea Kameni, but it is the actual
caldera, the gulp next to us. The rein is actually located where your
cruise boat is docked. The crater is located under the water and is
presently active but quiet. Not only has Santorini's shape changed but
the islands shape has also changed throughout time. Santorini's original
name was "Strongili" which comes from the Greek word "strogilo" meaning
round.
At the top of Athinios port, we can see the other part of the
island. The view is not as dramatic as the cliffs of the caldera but the
view is quite peaceful.
The highest
point of the island is Profitis Ilias, the mountain that we will see
with the radar antennas on top. The mountain of Profitis Ilias is 565m.
high. On the top of Profitis Ilias or Prophet Eliya, there are Greek and
Nato military bases. The name of the mountain comes from the monastery
of Profitis Ilias which is located at the top. The monastery was built
in 1771 and there are currently 5 monks living there today. The mountain
that we will see slopes downward. At the lower peak of the mountain is
Ancient Thira.
Pirgos.
The small hill that we will see is the highest village on the island.
The village of Pyrgos was the capital of the island until 1810. This
village is virtually untouched by tourism.
For centuries the island was invaded and inhabited by many nations, but
the Venetians were the ones that left a finger-print in the islands
history. On top of the hill, there are remains of an Venetian castle,
which was built by the Venetians in the 13th Century, during their
occupation on the island. The Venetians built the castle on the top and
their houses around the hill to protect themselves against island
attacks. But in 1537 a pirate called Barbarosa captured the island and
handled it over to the Sultan of Turkey. There are 50 churches in Pyrgos
and 250 inhabitants. It is a saying that Pyrgos has more churches than
houses, more donkeys than people and more wine than water.
The airport is an international
airport and it was built in 1971. According to statistics, there are 75
domestic and 85 charter flights per week. Santorini belongs to a
group of islands called "Cyclades". "Cyclades" comes from the
Greek word "cyclos" which means "circle". If you look at a map of Greece
you will be able to see that the Cycladic islands form a circle on the
map. Santorini is the Southern most island of the Cyclades.
On
our right we will see the village of "Messaria". Messaria is the
geographical center of the island. Messaria comes from the Greek word
"mesi" which means "middle" "Messaria" means "in the middle"-in the
middle of the island.
Years ago the economy of the island was based on the export of
pumice stone. Pumice stone is a porous volcanic rock and when mixed
with cement it is a good insulator underwater. In 1866 when the Suez
Canal was being built, they made quarries to export the pumice stone.
There are three quarries on the island. Because so much pumice stone was
being exported, more than 2 million tones annually,
the government made a strict law which forbade the exportation of
pumice stone from the island. We will be able tosee the quarries and the
factory and how much of the hill is missing. If pumice exportation was
not banned, a big damage would have been made to the island. The whole
island would have been destroyed.
At the town of Fira.
After the second World War, Fira became the capital of Santorini. You
will be able to see some of the public buildings of Fira- Post office-
and the Archeological Museum of the island. The new museum built in 2000
and contains the new findings of Pre-Historic Akrotiri, which is the
islands excavation site. The Orthodox Cathedral of the island, the
beautiful bell-tower of the Catholic Cathedral. 95% of the islands is
Greek orthodox. In the main square of the capital are all the banks and
some cafes. Fira has a population of 2,500 inhabitants. For the young
and young at heart, Fira is where the most night life is. It is build 30
meters above sea level, is famous for its views and sunsets. This were
42 gold stores are located, which contain jewelries brought from all
over the world and of course the Greek hand made pieces.
There are three different parts to the
capital of Fira. The lower part is Fira, the
middle part is Firostefani and the highest part is Imerovigli.
Firostefani gets its name from "stefani" which means "crown". The
village of Firostefani forms sort of a crown around Fira. Imerovigli
gets its name from the Greek word "imero" day and "vigli" watch. The
islanders use to keep their day watch or "imerovigli" from this village.
There are two different theories on how the capital Fira got its
name. Firstly the capital has two different names "Fira" and "Thira".
The first theory is that during Turkish occupation the Turkish could nor
pronounce the "th" sound in Thira, so they changed it to the "f" sound
and called the capital Fira. There is a problem with this theory. Many
linguists disagree with this theory. The other theory is that the name
comes from the Greek word "firos" meaning a yellow-radish color, the
color of fire. the color of the rocks under Fira have a deep radish
color. There are different layers of this color and the name of the
capital comes from the color of the rocks under Fira. This is the most
popular and mostly accepted theory.
During the 13th Century, there was a Venetian occupation on the
island. The occupation took place in 1204. The Venetians fortified 5
different places on the island. Imerovigli was the capital. They
chose Imerovigli because it is the highest point on the Caldera. there
is a strange rock formation that protrudes from the front of the
village. This rock formation is called "Skaros" and it is here that the
Venetians built their strongest of the five castles. This castle was
never defeated. the castle was destroyed in 1956 during the terrible
earthquake that registered 7.8 on the Richter scale.
Santorini is a very seismic island. Earthquakes are common
on the island but they are usually very small registering from 1-3 on
the Richter scale. Santorini is 72sq. kilometers and has a permanent
population of 10.000 inhabitants. There are 13 villages on the island.
The green plants that we will see everywhere are the grape vines.
Usually grape vines are cultivated 1.5m high. The Santorini grape vines
are cultivated near to the ground to protect them from the strong winds
that hit the island. The vines are cut, leaving the three strongest
branches and are weaved into a basket shape. The grapes are grown inside
the basket. This protects the grapes against the winds. the vines that
we see here are very young. On the Southern cape of the island,
Akrotiri, there are vines that are 65 years old. In the winter, when all
the leaves fall off, the island looks like it is covered in baskets.
Santorini and Mykonos are the windiest islands in Greece. In August, the
islanders pick the grapes by hand and transfer them by donkeys to their
wineries. White, red, semi-sweet and very sweet are some of the wines
Santorini produces.
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