Santorini

We recalled Santorini as a highlight of our 2004 cruise. This time we took a Princess-booked guided tour of the Akrotiri ruins at the southern end of the main island. We were joined by the Browns and the McWhorters. We had a wonderful guide, Edie, and radio headsets so we could hear her while on tour. The eruption is dated to 1628 BCE, probably in summer, and with enough warning that people (population about 5000) had already fled the city (no human remains found so far). The island (pre-eruption) was much larger and had lots of trees so there was timber for the construction. The archeologists have done a very careful excavation, taking casts of the wooden objects so they can be reproduced--including quite nice carved furniture. The culture, part of the Minoan civilization (pre-Greek), was a very advanced: running water, pipes, sewers, (in some ways more civilized than Santorini today, according to Edie, from Crete). Since the Greek government is completely broke, all archeological effort is now on hold. Edie showed us prints of some of the impressive murals, that were on the walls in Akrotiri -- now reassembled, mostly in museum in Athens. She had copies of some that are still suspended in the frozen archeology process. They show very contemporary fashions: lipstick, nail polish, jewelry. The new roof over the Akrotiri site is most impressive; it won an architecture award. The old roof collapsed in 2005, killing one tourist, and the site only re-opened in 2012. We paid a visit to the top of Mount Prophet Elijah, and then wandered around the town of Fira until we took the cable car back to the harbor for a tender out to the cruise ship.