Santorini is the Greek island home to the ancient settlement of Akrotiri, often identified with the ancient city of Thera region.
Santorini is the modern name for the main island of a volcanic archipelago in the southern Aegean Sea. A massive eruption in the second millennium BCE transformed the island and helped create its distinctive crescent shape and steep caldera cliffs.
Akrotiri was a sophisticated Bronze Age settlement with multi-storey buildings, drainage systems, pottery, and vivid wall paintings. It was buried by volcanic ash, which preserved much of the site.
Santorini is sometimes confused with ancient Thera, a separate archaeological site on the island’s Mesa Vouno mountain. Akrotiri is the major prehistoric settlement, while Ancient Thera was founded much later, traditionally in the ninth century BCE.