If you have been to Santorini, can you please enlighten me. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Tourist ships fight tooth and nail to get a port anchorage and the tourists give the place top billing on TripAdvisor and other ranking sites. I want to know why!
You have to remember that Santorini is a crescent shaped island that forms the ridge of a volcanoe that produced one of earth's largest explosion. It made Kracatoa explosion look like penny farthing crackers on Empire Night. Santorini's volcano took 60 cubic kilometres of rock and threw it into the air. Boulders the size of buses are strewn on mountainsides hundreds of meters above sea level. Volcanic ash hundreds of meters thick covers the mountains and plains on the island. The tsunami resulting from the explosion wrecked the Minoan communities along the coast of Crete. OK, we are talking about one mean volcano.
No one seems to argue that the volcano has gone away. It still heats one large bay of water to 30 degrees... it emits sulphur fumes in large volumes... it has a small lava pool visible. Importantly, it has a long history of coming back. Volcanologists keep close tabs on the monster.
The good citizens of Santorini love a good view. The blowing up of the mountain left extremely steep cliffs overlooking the cauldron... now filled with lovely blue Mediterranean water. If you build right on the edge, you can get the best possible view of the next explosion. I have no reason to question the engineering standards of the Santorini local council. I am sure some allowance has been taken of the frequent earthquakes associated with the demon volcano. All I can say is that they are playing a high stakes game. If one of the buildings packed vertically on the cauldron's edge collapses in a quake, gravity is going to apply some awfully powerful force on the buildings lying between it and the sea. The city seems to be built on foundations of 50 meters of volcanic ash. If it starts to slip at any time, there will be hell to pay.
OK, there is a risk to the magic of Santorini... but what of the benefits? The community has done a terrific job in dressing up the place. The local paint salesman... the one with exclusive rights to blue and white paint must be the richest person in Santorini. We are visiting just before the commencement of the tourist season... every shopkeeper has his paint roller out applying this year's coat of blue and white. The best activity is sitting on a balcony hanging over the cliff edge looking at the blue and white building and the blue water. After you have done that... what next? For the cruise ships, there is no next... after a bit of shopping, they get back on their ship and head to the next island. They can then use the ship's internet to connect with TripAdvisor and lodge a 5/5 ranking saying how great the coffee was. Fortunately for Joye and me, we found the preservation of the Minoan civilisation very interesting. The volcanic ash has preserved from looters relics of the civilisation in remarkably good condition.
That's enough from a cynical old man. Come to Santorini yourself and make up your own mind. Just make sure you have your life insurance paid up to date.
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