Things to do
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Akrotiri
A Bronze Age port town buried in ash when the island erupted some 3,600 years ago, and preserved to the second storey: streets, stairs, storage jars, drains. No bodies were found, so the inhabitants evidently had warning. The dig lies under a modern roof with walkways above the houses. Its wall paintings are in Athens and in the museum in Fira.
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Ancient Thera
A Greek and Roman city strung along a bare ridge 360 metres above the sea on the island's east coast, inhabited for a thousand years from the ninth century BC. A single main street runs past temples, a theatre, a gymnasium and houses with sea views on both sides. A hairpin road climbs from Kamari. It closes in mid-afternoon and is very exposed to wind.
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Museum of Prehistoric Thera
A compact museum in Fira that completes a visit to Akrotiri, holding what came out of the houses: painted jars, bronze tools, plaster casts of vanished wooden furniture and a small gold ibex found in 1999. Several frescoes are here, among them blue monkeys climbing a rock face. An hour is enough. It is closed one day a week, usually Tuesday.
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Nea Kameni
The black lava island at the centre of the caldera is the volcano's active vent, built up by eruptions since the sixteenth century, the latest in 1950. Excursion boats from the old port land for a half-hour walk over cinders to craters that still steam. Most continue to a cove of warm, rust-coloured water for a swim. Wear closed shoes and an old swimsuit.
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Pyrgos Kallistis
The island's former capital, an inland hill village wound in rings around the ruin of a Venetian castle, with blue-domed churches at every turn of the lanes. It sees a fraction of the visitors the caldera villages do. The top gives a view over the whole island from coast to coast. On Good Friday the entire hillside is lit with thousands of tin-can flares.
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Santorini caldera
A flooded crater about twelve kilometres long, left when the centre of the island collapsed in the Bronze Age eruption, with cliffs of banded red, black and white ash on three sides. A footpath follows the rim for ten kilometres between Fira and Oia, taking three to four hours. Start early from Fira, carry water, and finish in Oia before the sunset crowd arrives.
