ABOUT SANTORINI (site of the Mediterranean Retina Meeting IX)
Located in the southern Aegean Sea, Santorini is the largest island of a small archipelago bearing the same name. The main island of Santorini, classically known as Thera, along with Therasia, Aspronisi, Nea Kameni and Palea Kameni, surround a mostly drowned volcanic caldera.
The history of Santorini begins as early as 5000 BC. By the end of the third millennium, Santorini expanded, with the development of a Minoan civilization that thrived until the Bronze Age eruption, dated c. 1650-1500 BC. After a short period of Phoenician inhabitance, Dorians settled in the island and built the city referred today as Ancient Thera. A multitude of civilizations occupied Santorini in the following centuries, including the Roman, later Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire until becoming officially a part of Greece in 1832.
Modern Santorini is a major tourist attraction with a world-renowned sunset, but is also much more. From picturesque caldera villages and the volcano itself, to the archeological site of Akrotiri, the remnant of the local Minoan civilization, as well as the young, flourishing wine industry, Santorini has much to offer to the keen traveller.
