SANTORINI:
ISLAND OF MYTHS AND VOLCANIC HISTORY
By
Thomas D. Elias
SANTORINI, Greece – – If islands were
beautiful women, goes a classic line about this hyper-volcanic island 210 miles
southeast of Athens, Santorini would be a supermodel.
From its famously bright whitewashed houses
and shops to the deep blue Greek Orthodox church cupolas dotting the island,
there seems no end to the beauty and bucolic quality of Santorini.
This has made it a regular stop for myriad
cruise ships that regularly ply the Mediterranean Sea and a must-see for almost
anyone visiting Greece and its many islands.
We arrived here on one of the newest of
the world's luxury liners, the Viking Sky, a spanking new 933-passenger ship
run by the Viking cruise line best known for its riverboats.
This ship may be one of the classiest on
the seven seas, filled with real luxury and little of the empty glitz seen in the
brassy atrium entries of some other cruise liners. Walking onto the Sky about
six weeks after its February launch, the senses were filled with sights and
smells of the finest leather furniture, teak accessories and a staff
unrelenting in its efforts to serve passengers.
Plus, every cabin has a veranda – there
are no inside cabins on the Sky. Books are everywhere on this ship, which plays
a different Ted talk daily on its closed-circuit televisions and employs many
university professors to guide its shore excursion tours – at least one tour at
every stop included in the cruise fare, which is as low as $2,649 per person
for next year’s sailings of the 10-day Athens to Venice trip we took.
No ship, however, can detract or
distract long from the high drama of Santorini, held up by many myths as the
Atlantis of longstanding legend.
The current Santorini – the main island
and four smaller ones circling the archipelago's volcanic caldera – is all
that's left of a very large island destroyed in about 1625 B.C.E. by the most
massive volcanic eruption ever witnessed by humans. The impact was felt as far
away as Sweden, almost 2,000 miles north, and the plume of smoke, ash, lava and
pumice it spewed was far greater than what was produced by the blasts of
Krakatoa in the 19th Century or Mount St. Helens in the 20th.
Was there ever a great and advanced civilization
here? The answer is maybe. For sure archaeological digs going down about 300
feet through old lava and ash have found very sophisticated artifacts. But no
machines, so far. So if this civilization was advanced, it was by ancient – not
modern – standards.
For sure, the volcanic blast destroyed
the Minoan civilization that dominated Mediterranean shipping and commerce from
the island of Crete, 140 miles south of Santorini, for more than 100 years. One
of its legendary kings was the mythical Midas, he of the golden touch. The
force of the volcano’s explosion was far greater than any earthquake
experienced anywhere since.
Santorini, for example, endured a volcano-caused
7.9 earthquake in 1956. That’s as great a magnitude as any quake that ever
struck California – about equal to the 1906 San Francisco jolt and another that
hit in 1857 along the San Andreas Fault in the Ft. Tejon area near Interstate
5’s Grapevine stretch. The Santorini 7.9 knocked down many buildings, but it
left the island itself unchanged. So it was a far cry from the ancient
eruption.
The modern island is one of fabulous
views and narrow roads given to sudden traffic jams and no visible traffic
cops. That's why our veteran guide here, 25-year-island resident Charlotte
Jordan, joked that you can still rent a donkey near Santorini's second city of
Oia (pronounced ee-ah) and on some days beat a car or bus to the main town of
Thira, about five miles away.
You can also rent a donkey, a la the
famed Molokai mules, near the dock at the bottom of the 1,300-foot volcano-made
cliff on the west side of the main island for the climb up to Thira. Most
visitors prefer to go by cable car for a fare of six euros, or about $6.50.
It's in Oia that you'll find the
prettiest, purest whitewash-and-blue-colored church on the island, St. Mary of
Platsumi Cathedral.
The habit of painting church domes
bright blue is said by locals to be a leftover from an era when Greeks had to
be discreet about protesting discrimination by the Ottoman Turks who ruled the
island for 420 years until Greeks – said to have been inspired by the American
and French revolutions – finally won their independence in the early 19th
century.
Blue has always been one of two colors on
the Greek flag. Since any religious or nationalist protests were harshly
squashed by the Turks, the church cupolas are reminders that despite their
hardships, Greeks refused to forget who they were.
Greeks on Santorini for centuries also
held secret classes passing on their culture in a monastery atop Mt. Elias (no
relation to the author), the highest spot on the island at about 4800 feet.
The bottom line: this island is a must-see
and must-experience. And a brand-new cruise ship smelling of new leather and
fresh varnish is a pretty good way to get here.
-30-
Thomas
D Elias writes a syndicated column on California public affairs appearing in 93
California newspapers.
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