My feet firmly on the ground again my eyes devour the view. Luckily, the unladylike dismount that follows is only witnessed by my donkey and the man leading him. The view beyond the wall, that I seem in danger of toppling over, is breathtaking, leaving me with mixed feelings of pure enjoyment and vertigo induced terror. My donkey keeps wandering off to one side, brushing against the low wall that lines the path. The ride is somewhat precarious, my feet not even reaching the stirrups. While I would clearly love to walk the path up to Manolas (clears throat) I opt instead, always seeking new experiences, to go by donkey.
We can also clearly see the path, with over 280 steps, that climbs up the cliff face to the village of Manolas where we are heading. As far as I know, in Santorini they are only to be found in Thirassia.”Īs we edge our way round a headland the little port of Korfos comes into view, a pretty destination for many day trips from Santorini. As Kathrin, my guide explains “We call them the ‘roses of Thirassia’. They were formed by flying rocks hitting the wall of the caldera after the mountain collapsed. Today, as our boat draws nearer to the cliffs of Thirassia, we can still clearly see strange circular rock formations made by this catastrophic eruption nearly 4,000 years ago. Whether this is true or not we’ll probably never really know. Many people have looked for the lost city of Atlantis and one plausible theory is that Plato was describing the Minoan civilisation on Crete and Santorini. Plato’s account, written around 360BC, says that Atlantis was a major sea power, ruled by a descendant of the sea god Poseidon. However, as the divine lineage became diluted with mortal blood, the gods became more and more displeased with the people of Atlantis until they decided to destroy it and the island sank into the sea overnight. While many think the story is just a myth, others believe it is based on an actual historic disaster. This may well have given rise to the myth of the lost city of Atlantis, and it is now believed that it was this eruption and in particular, the subsequent tsunami, that devastated the Minoan civilisation on Crete, some hundred miles away.Ītlantis was first described by the Greek philosopher Plato more than 2,000 years ago. As the majority of the original island disappeared beneath the waves, the remaining land was buried under as much as 60 metres of ash and stone, and the sun was blotted out for many months. The 17th century BC eruption was one of the largest in the history of mankind. The land mass top left, is the southern part of the crescent-shaped Thira while the land top right, is Thirassia and you can just make out the zigzagging path that climbs up to Manolas. Known as the New and the Old Burnt Islands, Nei Kemani and Palea Kemani, they are the youngest land masses on earth.Ībove: A view of the Burnt Islands, in the centre of Santorini’s caldera, from Fira on the island of Thira. More recently, only about 300 years ago, two new islands arose from the sea in the middle of the caldera, as the still active volcano continued erupting and spewing out lava.
The land that remained above the water had become three islands – Thira by far the largest and more commonly known as Santorini, Thirassia (also spelt Therasia), meaning daughter of Thira, and the tiny island of Aspronisi.
#Seven lost caves series#
Santorini was once one round island, formed over many years by a series of volcanic eruptions, but around 1630BC, it exploded with such force, disgorging such a vast volume of magma, that the island collapsed in on itself, forming a caldera that filled with sea water. We had half an hour to explore the pretty harbour, before catching the boat to the neighbouring island of Thirassia.Ībove: view from the harbour at Oia across the caldera to Thirassia The birth of the Burnt Islands and the death of Atlantis My day started at a very civilised hour when Kathrin, from Santorini Experts, picked me up at 11.30 in the morning and off we trundled to Oia. Yet it was only a few decades ago that some 700 people lived here – lived, married, bore children, laughed, cried and gossiped with the neighbours – just like any other village in Greece. The now exposed caves that were once homes look ancient. The abandoned village of Akrilia comes into view. Walking through the countryside, the scent of thyme is released into the air as we brush past the low growing shrubs parched from the summer’s sun.
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