Sunup from our room at the Hotel Astra, and beyond our terrace the
huge volcanic caldera of Santorini (Thera to the Greeks). The land
you see in the upper left was once contiguous with this island; the material
in between was removed by a gigantic explosion which may have brought an
end to the Minoan civilization on Crete and given rise to the story of
Atlantis. The land in the upper right of the picture is the town
of Oia, a pleasant drive or a fairly arduous walk from our room here in
Imerovigli; The island to the left is Thirasia, which
still boasts a thriving indigenous population. Further to the left
you would see a scorched cinder cone, remnant of the volcano. It
is customary to travel there by boat and hike to the still-active steam
vents. Behind us, the southern part of our island (past the main
tourist paradise) is home to agriculture (capers are an identifying feature
of Theran cooking) and an amazing archaeological site from a couple millennia
B.C. at Akrotiri.