Santorini lying 100km north of crete is the most beautiful island providing us the essence of Hellas. The white houses of its capital, Fira crowd all in a heap in a lively extravaganza. Every curve of the narrow winding alleys larded with stairs shows yet another miracle. The flat roof of the houses is the terrace of the flat above from where the view of the incredibly blue surface of the Aegean Sea is simply amazing. The 587 stair journey from Fira to the harbor of Skala where pleasure boats depart to the little nearby islands can be taken on donkey back or cable railway. The long row of cube shaped houses is broken by a blue domed church or a thatched windmill. The windows of blue shuttered houses appear even livelier with their geraniums. Tourists relax in swimming pools, the sun flashes, the salty fragrance of the sea can be smelled while white boats float towards unknown destinations. The once rounded island shrank to a crescent shape due to a volcanic eruption in Minoan times. An active volcano frequently spitting ashes and lava used to stand on the place where now the sea shines in the bay of the crescent.In the 15th century BC, the volcano erupted. The mountain disappeared at that time, creating the present form of Santorini. The sea was ablaze for four days between Thera and Terrasia wrote an ancient author when a 2km long flaming lava island, Palea Kameni or the old stone emerged from the ebullient sea. More recent eruptions frightened the islanders even in the 1950s. The beach of Kamari covered with black volcanic sand can be found near the airport. The settlement was built at the foot of the oldest mountain of the Aegean Sea, Mesavorno which was a harbor of Thera in ancient times. It was also sunk by a volcanic eruption until it was brought to surface again by another one in the last century. The village had to be rebuilt from its ruins after the earthquake in 1956. By today, Kamari has become the most prosperous and fast developing resort of the island. Its popular and loved for its clean water and sandy beaches as well as for a wide choice of water sports and activities. The intimate promenade is attractively framed by hotels of varying categories.Akrotiri is considered to be one of the most significant excavations in the world nowadays. A French geologist took notice of the pieces of rocks which turned up from under the tuff and this finally led to the excavation of a surprisingly sound 3000 year old town. It happened more than 50 years before Evans discovered the ruins of Knossos Palace on Crete so nobody had the faintest idea about Minoan culture. The findings appearing sometimes from under 15m deep volcanic ashes confirm the assumptions of Marentos, a famous archeologist concerning the expanded Minoan empire working with Crete as its center. The appearance of Iya is thought to outshine even that of the capital city Fira. The mixture of intimate houses is the embodiment of a Greek dream itself. Theres simply no travel agency without a brochure full of pictures luring tourists to Hellas. The unique architecture of Santorini is defined by its geographical position. Here people manage to make a virtue of necessity. Poverty stricken families made use of the quite good workability of pyrogenus pumice and dug out cavern houses in the steep side of the caldera. The volcanic rock from the mountain was used as building material.The cradle vault due to lack of wood was made of stone. Wealthier people later added porches to the caverns. The terraces are separated by small plastered stone fences and little wooden gates. The streets are replaced or supplemented by winding stairs. The usage of white, blue and recently pastel shades are just as characteristic as the decorations. The style itself is called Aegean or Cyclades. Nowadays, amateurs argue a lot about whether Atlantis, the marvelous land first described by Plato existed or not. Galanopolous, the Greek geologist immediately assumed that Minoan Crete and Santorini together formed Atlantis. The fictional continent was said to be in the Atlantic Ocean however, yet the Minoan empire certainly shows similarities to the ideal state imagined by Plato.Moreover, the catastrophe said to have destroyed Atlantis shows great similarity to the eruption and explosion of the Santorini volcano, earthquakes and tsunami that destroyed the Minoans. The stakes are enormously high. If Atlantis had existed, a man of the Stone Age would not be a descendant of Neanderthal ancestors but the survivor of a civilization that had existed earlier but was destroyed in a worldwide cataclysm. The evidence would basically knock holes in the theories established about the evolution of mankind.