antorini is an unusual island with intense character and unique fascination. The wildness of the landscape, the breathtaking view, the multicolored beaches formed by the volcano's lava and the deep blue Aegean Sea combine a picture of wild, proud and imposing beauty. The whole island is one huge pile of volcanic lava. The ground you stand on is not part of the earth's crust; it has been created by the hardening of a viscous liquid expelled from the bowels of the earth, like the blood from a wound drying on the skin. Red, black and brown are its colours.

f one looks at Santorini from a distance it will be seen that the island seems to consist of masses of land rising more or less vertically out of the sea. There are no slopes, only precipices. The land masses are a ranged perpendicularly, each a little behind the other. The overall appearance is that of land rising in gigantic terraces which are higher than they are deep. Even the back side of the island, which descends more gently towards the sea, descends in terraces. The net result is that perpendicular planes predominate over the horizontal ones.

n the other hand, the ground or at least the topsoil -a mixture of volcanic dust, earth and ash- has the dual advantage of being easy to dig while being solid enough not to cave in once hollowed out. These two factors combined provided the islanders with the most simple of solutions: they dug a horizontal tunnel in the ground, built a wall across the mouth and moved in. And so the 'skafta', these unique buildings, came into being.

hat is characteristic of the villages as a whole is that there is not one straight line in them. This plethora of asymmetrical lines, meeting to form the most unlikely shapes, is what gives to the masses of buildings a sweetness and gentleness which are surprising on such an island.

antorini, on the other hand, combines the quite traditional village for relaxation and sobriety with the cosmopolitan character. A vast variety of accomodation including luxury hotels and appartments, elegant restaurants, stylish crowded clubs and organized beaches offer to the visitor the chance for unforgettable vacations. After all it's not by chance that many of the island visitors come back every year for a few days spelled by the islands unlike magnetism…

Photos and text taken from "Santorini - Today and yesterday" (Toubis Editions)