The Greek Islands had already become a favourite holiday destination for me when in 1996 I was made redundant and found myself with time on my hands and sufficent money in the bank to spend part of the summer travelling around the Aegean Sea. I sold my car and booked a flight on British airways to Athens Airport and thence to Pireaus ferry port.

Thursday 3 June 2010

Excavations at Akrotiri, Santorini

Last night (Wednesday 2nd June 2010)  BBC2 broadcast a Timewatch Special, presented by Bettany Hughes, entitled Atlantis: The Evidence examining the background to the legend.

The programme concentrated on the eruption over three and a half millena ago of the volcano that formed the islands that are now Santorini and the Minoan civilisation on the island of Crete.

One of the locations featured was the archaeological site of the Minoan city at Akrotiri which was discovered in 1967. At the time of my visit to Santorini it was open to the public, unfortunately this is no longer the case. A roof had been constructed over the ruins to protect them from the elements, however in 2005 part of it collapsed causing the death of a visitor and the site has remained closed since, although I understand it is intended to reopen it in the future.

Akrotiri has yielded some amazing artifacts giving us real insight into Europe's first civilisation, particularly interesting are the frescoes now on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

Other items discovered during the excavations are now displayed in a local museum some distance from the site.











Wikipedia has a detailed articles on the Akrotiri Archaeological Site and Santorini.
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