Ports in Greece
° Corfu ° Katakolon ° Mykonos ° Piraeus
° Santorini
Greece has a history stretching back more than 4,000 years; the inhabitants of Greece and her islands have been sea-faring people since the dawn of time. The people of the mainland, called Hellenes, organised great naval and military expeditions, and explored the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, going as far as the Atlantic Ocean and the Caucasus Mountains. One of those expeditions, the siege of Troy, is narrated in the first great European literary work, Homer's Iliad. Numerous Greek settlements were founded throughout the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the coast of North Africa as a result of travels in search of new markets.
The Cyclades
The islands of the Cyclades comprise one of the most enchanting parts of Greece, and Santorini may be the most beautiful and dynamic of those islands with its 51,146 square miles. All of the Greek Islands are stunning, but perhaps none more so that The Cyclades.The earliest traders in this region were the Minoans; their base was the island of Crete and they travelled and traded throughout the Mediterranean. The Minoans constructed huge, intricately designed palaces with polychrome pottery, indoor plumbing, and brightly coldored wall paintings. Because the Minoan written language has not been deciphered, they remain a mysterious race, yet they set the stage for what we call the "Classical Greek" age.
Santorini
Centuries ago Santorini—then called Thera—was shaped like a cone, but that cone was a volcano. Sometime before 1450 B.C., Thera erupted and the island is now shaped like a fishhook. Scientists belive that a tidal wave may have resulted from the eruption and destroyed Minoan cities along the northern coast of Crete. (The last eruption was in 1948; Santorini is on the same fault line as Stromboli, Vesuvia and Etna.)After the eruption, the island was repopulated and recovered quickly. Egyptians used the sheltered harbor as a forward base for their fleet of galleys. There are also many remnants of Roman buildings and early Christian churches. The current name of teh isladncomes from its patroness, Saint Irene of Thessalonika, who died there in 304. The Venetians called her sant'Irini, and the name stuck.
Before the Turks evicted the Venetian navy, the Venetians controlled Santorini and the other Cyclades for more than 300 years and established commercial and trade relations with most of the islands and cities of Greece.
During the Hellenistic period, Thera, because of its central position in the Aegean, became an important trade centre and a important naval base, due to its strategically perfect position. Between 1200 AC and 1579 AC, the island was under Byzantine and Venetian reign, and from 1579 to1821 AC fell under the Turkish occupation until the Greek Revolution and independence.
Because of constant changes and to control temperature, houses were built into cliffs. As a result they were virtually unseen from the sea. Traditional Santorini houses are carved into the mountainside. Because of the lack of water on the island, containers were built under the house to collect rainwater. Those houses, many of which started in the 1700s, are now much in demand. They are beautiful blues and whites (quite like the colors on this page) and are rented as summer houses to tourists.
Cruise Ship Truths!
A cruise ship Officer's Tales: This is a behind-the-scenes look at cruise ships in a new way. Don't you wonder what goes on behind the "Crew Only" doors? Some of the stories are shocking, some are enlightening, but most are just laugh-out-loud entertaining. The Officer reveals:- How romance on a cruise ship is unlike anywhere else
- The insane things passengers do
- Why alcohol is mandatory at sea
- How nude cruises compare to Christian cruises
- What happens when things go horribly wrong at sea
Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude